CVE-2026-93471: Unbounded SAML message decompression in esaml allows memory exhaustion
Description
Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) in esaml_binding in dropbox esaml allows an unauthenticated attacker to exhaust server memory and crash the Erlang VM via a crafted compressed SAMLResponse. esaml_binding:decode_response/2 base64-decodes the attacker-supplied SAMLResponse, inflates it with zlib:unzip/1 with no bound on the output, then converts the result to a charlist with binary_to_list/1 before parsing. This runs on the SAML consume (ACS) and single-logout endpoints, which accept unauthenticated requests by design, and it runs before any signature check. A small deflate stream reaches a compression ratio near 1000 to 1, so a request body of tens of kilobytes inflates to hundreds of megabytes and then to several gigabytes of list heap, so a few requests exhaust memory and take the node down. This issue affects esaml: from 0.1.0 onward.
CWE-409
Tracked companies
Mapped from the CVE’s affected-product data, NVD CPE matches, vendor advisories or package feeds. A mapping means the vendor’s software is named, not that its hosted service was exposed.
Status incidents that name it
No tracked status incident names this CVE.
Affected vendors and products
arekinath: esamldropbox: esamlhandnot2: esaml
References
- CVE record on cve.org (opens in new tab)
- NVD entry (opens in new tab)
- cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-93471.html (opens in new tab)
- github.com/arekinath/esaml/commit/deeb84378d5c82153b470e99d24f77c38afca14a (opens in new tab)
- github.com/dropbox/esaml/commit/deeb84378d5c82153b470e99d24f77c38afca14a (opens in new tab)
- github.com/handnot2/esaml/commit/deeb84378d5c82153b470e99d24f77c38afca14a (opens in new tab)
- osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-93471 (opens in new tab)
- CVE records from the CVE Program (cve.org). CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. (opens in new tab)
- This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. (opens in new tab)
- Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog from CISA. (opens in new tab)
- EPSS scores from FIRST (Exploit Prediction Scoring System). (opens in new tab)