Pingora HTTP/2 server memory exhaustion through unbounded default header-list and concurrent-stream limits

Pingora versions prior to 0.8.1 used the h2 crate's default HTTP/2 server limits, a 16 MiB decoded header-list size and no limit on concurrent streams, unless the application set its own. A remote, unauthenticated client can send 1-byte HPACK references to a near-empty header, making the server allocate hundreds of thousands of header fields per stream across an unlimited number of streams on one connection, and use HTTP/2 flow control to keep those streams open. This can exhaust memory and degrade or terminate the Pingora process. This affects any Pingora service that terminates HTTP/2 (h2 or h2c) without explicitly setting `max_header_list_size` and `max_concurrent_streams`. The reporter showed that a single connection could get a Pingora process with a 2 GiB memory limit OOM-killed. This flaw was corrected in commit d193c8d49b8b7c1c1ede93183759caa4f6906bbd. When no `H2Options` are supplied, Pingora now advertises and enforces a 64 KiB decoded header-list limit and at most 100 concurrent streams per connection. Users should upgrade to Pingora >= 0.8.1. Applications that supply their own `H2Options` are not covered by these defaults and must set `max_header_list_size` and `max_concurrent_streams` explicitly, or start from `pingora_core::protocols::http::v2::server::default_h2_options()`. `H2Options::default()` does not include these limits. Note: Cloudflare CDN customers were unaffected, as internal Pingora services at Cloudflare do not have HTTP/2 clients.

Source published

20 Oct 2026 12:00:00 UTC

Source modified

26 Oct 2026 11:15:11 UTC

Observed here

26 Oct 2026 11:36:11 UTC

Source terms

OSV · upstream source license applies

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CVSS_V4 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N