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HIGH

python-engineio has unbound thread allocation that can cause denial of service

Published Aug 11, 2026

Description

python-engineio is a Python implementation of the Engine.IO realtime client and server. Prior to version 4.13.2, an attacker can cause the creation of unnecessary background threads in the python-engineio server by exploiting the heartbeat mechanism, which launches a thread when a new connection is received, and when the client sends a PONG packet. This issue primarily affects synchronous servers. Asynchronous servers allocate background tasks instead of physical threads, which are lightweight and less likely to cause denial of service. However, the fix that was implemented was also applied to the asynchronous case. Version 4.13.2 addresses this issue as follows: The initial background thread (or async task( for heartbeat management is only launched if a client passes authentication in the `connect` handler; and the server now ensures that there is only one background heatbeat thread (or async task) per client at a given point in time. Out of sequence PONG packets are now discarded when an active heartbeat thread is already running.

Affected products

Remediation

No remediation recorded yet.

References (4)

Change history (0)

No recorded changes yet.

Sources

CVE.org / MITRE

Status PUBLISHED
Assigner GitHub_M
Published Aug 11, 2026
Updated Aug 13, 2026
Reserved May 22, 2026

CISA Vulnrichment

Updated Aug 13, 2026

NVD

Status Deferred
Modified Sep 18, 2026

Red Hat

No data

ENISA EUVD

Assigner GitHub_M
Published Aug 11, 2026
Updated Aug 13, 2026