GitHub Advisoryadvisory · PyPI
GHSA-9663-mqmp-p9mm python-zeroconf: Unbounded TC-deferred queue allows LAN-local memory exhaustion via spoofed-source flood
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-48045
- Ecosystem
- PyPI
- Packages
- zeroconf
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-400, CWE-770
- Reviewed
- 2026-06-11
Affected packages
• PyPI zeroconf: < 0.149.12 → fixed in 0.149.12
Description
Impact
`AsyncListener.handle_query_or_defer` retained every truncated (TC-bit) incoming query in `self._deferred[addr]` and armed a per-addr timer in `self._timers[addr]` that flushed the reassembled query within ~500 ms (RFC 6762 §18.5). Neither the per-addr list nor the number of distinct `addr` keys was capped, and the dedup check (`for incoming in reversed(deferred): if incoming.data == msg.data`) ran O(N) over the per-addr list on every arrival.
Any unauthenticated host on the local link (UDP/5353, `224.0.0.251` / `ff02::fb`) can stream byte-distinct TC-flagged mDNS queries — each up to `_MAX_MSG_ABSOLUTE = 8966` bytes, with `DNSIncoming` retaining the raw `data` buffer plus parsed-record state. Trivially spoofed source IPs multiply the effect across `_deferred` / `_timers`, and the O(N) data compare burns CPU quadratically as each per-addr queue grows. On memory-constrained deployments (Home Assistant on Raspberry-Pi-class hardware is the canonical victim) sustained traffic OOM-kills the process; under lighter load, the per-arrival scan and event-loop scheduler starvation break unrelated zeroconf consumers (discovery, registration, ServiceBrowser callbacks).
Patches
Fixed in `zeroconf` 0.149.12 (PR #1751). Upgrade to `>= 0.149.12`.
Workarounds
There is no in-process workaround; upgrading is the fix. Otherwise, restrict mDNS (UDP/5353) to trusted Layer-2 segments via AP client isolation, guest-network separation, or host firewall rules.
Resources
• PR #1751, fix
• RFC 6762 §18.5, CWE-400
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-48045 Zeroconf is a pure Python implementation of multicast DNS service discovery. vulnerability
References
- https://github.com/python-zeroconf/python-zeroconf/security/advisories/GHSA-9663-mqmp-p9mm web
- https://github.com/python-zeroconf/python-zeroconf/pull/1751 web
- https://github.com/python-zeroconf/python-zeroconf/commit/b22c8ff19c66c68907d220a4823c0950f4fa93f7 web
- https://github.com/python-zeroconf/python-zeroconf package