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CVE IDCVE-2026-77301GitHub advisory IDGHSA-7q85-xj36-vmfc

adm-zip: Uncontrolled memory allocation via the declared uncompressed size (DoS)

CVE-2026-77301 (GitHub advisory GHSA-7q85-xj36-vmfc) is a high-severity vulnerability with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5, classed as Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value (CWE-789), in adm-zip (npm). Affected versions: < 0.6.1. It is fixed in 0.6.1.

High7.5Fix availableGitHub reviewed

Published 18 Sept 2026Updated 18 Sept 2026

7.5HighCVSS 3.1
EPSS
0.41%higher than 35% of CVEs
Weakness (CWE)
  • CWE-789Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value
KEV status
Not in KEV
Published
18 Sept 2026
Updated
18 Sept 2026
Ecosystem
  • npm
Assigned by (CNA)
GitHub_M

Summary

Source: OSV (GitHub advisory)

adm-zip allocates an entry's output buffer from the declared uncompressed size (central-directory size field) before validating it against the actual data. A tiny crafted ZIP that declares a huge uncompressed size forces a multi-gigabyte allocation from a few bytes.

Impact

On adm-zip 0.5.17 (latest), Node 24, a 105-byte ZIP with one stored entry declaring size = 1,774,399,200 makes new AdmZip(buf).getEntries()[0].getData() commit ~1.8 GB of resident memory in ~4.4 s before throwing Error: ADM-ZIP: CRC32 checksum failed, roughly 16 million times the input size. Because the buffer is committed before any validation, on a memory-constrained host (containers, serverless, small VMs) the allocation OOM-kills the process before the CRC check (uncatchable), and concurrent requests can exhaust memory even on larger hosts. Any service that reads entries from untrusted ZIPs is exposed to a remote denial of service.

Steps to reproduce

Attachments are not supported in the advisory form, so the 105-byte PoC (sha256 980d34356fbb248fe527b9d0ac3eabc5c99393a374014be6199523de16709386) is inlined as base64 in this self-contained reproducer:

const AdmZip = require('adm-zip');
// 105-byte crafted ZIP, base64-inlined
// sha256 980d34356fbb248fe527b9d0ac3eabc5c99393a374014be6199523de16709386
const b64 = "UEsDBBQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABQAAAAUAAAABAAAAYWhlbGxvUEsBAhQAFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFAAAA4C7DaQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGFQSwUGAAAAAAEAAQAvAAAAJAAAAAAA";
const buf = Buffer.from(b64, "base64");          // 105 bytes
const zip = new AdmZip(buf);
zip.getEntries()[0].getData();   // commits ~1.8 GB, then throws "ADM-ZIP: CRC32 checksum failed"

The single entry declares uncompressed size = 1,774,399,200 with a compressed size of 5. getData() allocates the full declared size before the CRC check runs, so the memory is committed regardless of the (tiny) actual payload.

Root cause

zipEntry.js does Buffer.alloc(<declared uncompressed size>) before checking the declared size against the compressed size / available bytes.

Suggested fix

Validate the declared uncompressed size against the compressed size and a configurable maximum before allocating (yauzl, for example, requires the caller to bound this); reject or stream when the declared size is implausible relative to the input. Happy to send a patch.

Technical details

Source: GitHub Advisory Database

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

High7.5Base score from GitHub Advisory Database

Attack Vector AV
Network
Attack Complexity AC
Low
Privileges Required PR
None
User Interaction UI
None
Scope S
Unchanged
Confidentiality C
None
Integrity I
None
Availability A
High

CISA SSVC decision points

Exploitation
poc
Proof-of-concept code is public
Automatable
yes
Attackers can automate this at scale
Technical impact
partial
Limited control of the affected system

CISA Coordinator assessment (SSVC 2.0.3) via CVE.org.

Affected packages

Source: OSV (GitHub advisory)

  • adm-zip
    npm
    pkg:npm/adm-zip
    Affected versions
    < 0.6.1
    Fixed in
    0.6.1

Fix

Source: OSV (GitHub advisory)

Fix available

Upgrade to 0.6.1 or later.

Patch commits

  • 4916006Patch commitgithub.com/cthackers/adm-zip

    Enforced the decompression size cap on the async path and for size 0

    +26 −7 across 2 files

    • methods/inflater.js+25 −7
    • util/errors.js+1 −0

Release commits

The commits each fixed release tag points at. They usually bump the version rather than contain the fix itself.

  • cb2cf9bRelease commit0.6.1github.com/cthackers/adm-zip

Vulnerability intelligence

References

Credits

Questions about CVE-2026-77301

What is the GHSA ID for CVE-2026-77301?
GitHub tracks CVE-2026-77301 as GHSA-7q85-xj36-vmfc.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-77301?
CVE-2026-77301 has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5 (High), vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-77301?
adm-zip (npm): < 0.6.1.
How do I fix CVE-2026-77301?
Upgrade to 0.6.1 or later. The fix is in commit 4916006.
What is the Package URL (PURL) for CVE-2026-77301?
The affected package's PURL is pkg:npm/adm-zip.
Is CVE-2026-77301 exploited in the wild?
CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog doesn't list CVE-2026-77301. That means no confirmed exploitation has been catalogued, not that it is safe to leave unpatched. CISA's SSVC assessment rates exploitation as "poc". EPSS estimates a 0.41% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 35% of CVEs.

Data sources

Upstream records

  • OSV (GitHub advisory)LoadedRaw JSON
  • GitHub Advisory DatabaseLoadedRaw JSON
  • OSV (CVE record)LoadedRaw JSON
  • CVE.orgLoaded
  • CISA KEV catalogLoaded

Fetched 5 days ago (8 Oct 2026, 22:37 UTC). Records refresh automatically after 24 hours.

Where each part of this page came from

Title and description
OSV (GitHub advisory)
Severity score
GitHub Advisory Database
Weakness (CWE)
GitHub Advisory Database
Affected packages
OSV (GitHub advisory)
Fix
OSV (GitHub advisory)
References
Computed by CVEminer
SSVC
CVE.org
KEV status
CISA KEV catalog
EPSS
GitHub Advisory Database

OSV and GitHub Advisory Database content is licensed CC BY 4.0. Values marked as computed or derived were calculated by CVEminer from the upstream data.