CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-63341

HighCVSS 7.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.37%

30th percentile - higher than 30% of all known CVEs

Summary

Aedes MQTT broker prior to 1.1.1 does not bound topic depth or structural complexity before passing topics through `mqemitter` into `qlobber`. A `PUBLISH`, `SUBSCRIBE`, or registered `Will` message with an excessively deep topic triggers an uncaught `too many words` exception that escapes to the Node.js event loop and terminates the broker process. The issue is fixed in version 1.1.1.

Risk Assessment

An authenticated or unauthenticated MQTT client (depending on broker configuration) can crash the entire broker, disconnecting all legitimate clients and preventing reconnection until the process restarts. This poses a serious availability threat to IoT infrastructure.

Recommendation

Upgrade Aedes to version 1.1.1 or later. Additionally, consider restricting broker access and implementing automatic restart mechanisms.

Related vulnerabilities

Original NVD description (English source)

Aedes is an MQTT broker that can run on any stream server. Prior to 1.1.1, the MQTT broker does not bound topic depth or structural complexity before passing topics through `mqemitter` into `qlobber`. A `PUBLISH`, `SUBSCRIBE`, or registered `Will` message containing an excessively deep topic can reach `qlobber._split_words` in `lib/qlobber.js` and trigger an uncaught `too many words` exception. Calls from `handlers/subscribe.js` and the publishing logic are not protected against that exception, so it escapes to the `Node.js event loop` and terminates the entire broker. The `Will` path is independently reachable when a client disconnects ungracefully: it calls `broker.publish` directly and bypasses the `PUBLISH` handler. An attacker must be able to establish an `MQTT session`, authenticated or unauthenticated according to broker configuration. A successful attack disconnects all legitimate clients and prevents reconnection until the broker process restarts. This issue is fixed in version 1.1.1.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS