Apache bRPC <1.14.1 DoS via unlimited Redis parser allocation
CVE-2025-54472 Published on August 14, 2025
Apache bRPC: Redis Parser Remote Denial of Service
Unlimited memory allocation in redis protocol parser in Apache bRPC (all versions < 1.14.1) on all platforms allows attackers to crash the service via network.
Root Cause: In the bRPC Redis protocol parser code, memory for arrays or strings of corresponding sizes is allocated based on the integers read from the network. If the integer read from the network is too large, it may cause a bad alloc error and lead to the program crashing. Attackers can exploit this feature by sending special data packets to the bRPC service to carry out a denial-of-service attack on it.
The bRPC 1.14.0 version tried to fix this issue by limited the memory allocation size, however, the limitation checking code is not well implemented that may cause integer overflow and evade such limitation. So the 1.14.0 version is also vulnerable, although the integer range that affect version 1.14.0 is different from that affect version < 1.14.0.
Affected scenarios: Using bRPC as a Redis server to provide network services to untrusted clients, or using bRPC as a Redis client to call untrusted Redis services.
How to Fix: we provide two methods, you can choose one of them:
1. Upgrade bRPC to version 1.14.1.
2. Apply this patch ( https://github.com/apache/brpc/pull/3050 ) manually.
No matter you choose which method, you should note that the patch limits the maximum length of memory allocated for each time in the bRPC Redis parser. The default limit is 64M. If some of you redis request or response have a size larger than 64M, you might encounter error after upgrade. For such case, you can modify the gflag redis_max_allocation_size to set a larger limit.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2025-54472 is exploitable with network access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have no impact on confidentiality and integrity, and a high impact on availability.
Weakness Types
What is a Resource Exhaustion Vulnerability?
The software does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources.
CVE-2025-54472 has been classified to as a Resource Exhaustion vulnerability or weakness.
Integer Overflow or Wraparound
The software performs a calculation that can produce an integer overflow or wraparound, when the logic assumes that the resulting value will always be larger than the original value. This can introduce other weaknesses when the calculation is used for resource management or execution control. An integer overflow or wraparound occurs when an integer value is incremented to a value that is too large to store in the associated representation. When this occurs, the value may wrap to become a very small or negative number. While this may be intended behavior in circumstances that rely on wrapping, it can have security consequences if the wrap is unexpected. This is especially the case if the integer overflow can be triggered using user-supplied inputs. This becomes security-critical when the result is used to control looping, make a security decision, or determine the offset or size in behaviors such as memory allocation, copying, concatenation, etc.
Products Associated with CVE-2025-54472
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Affected Versions
Apache Software Foundation Apache bRPC:- Before 1.14.1 is affected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.