Resource exhaustion in Rails Activesupport
CVE-2026-33176
Active Support is a toolkit of support libraries and Ruby core extensions extracted from the Rails framework. Prior to versions 8.1.2.1, 8.0.4.1, and 7.2.3.1, Active Support number helpers accept strings containing scientific notation (e.g. `1e10000`), which `BigDecimal` expands into extremely large decimal representations. This can cause excessive memory allocation and CPU consumption when the expanded number is formatted, possibly resulting in a DoS vulnerability. Versions 8.1.2.1, 8.0.4.1, and 7.2.3.1 contain a patch.
Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)
EPSS: 0.006 (46.9th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Affected products
- Rails Activesupport — versions >= 8.1.0.beta1, < 8.1.2.1, >= 8.0.0.beta1, < 8.0.4.1, < 7.2.3.1
- Rubyonrails Rails
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor Advisory)
- security-advisories@github.com (Patch, x_refsource_MISC)
- security-advisories@github.com (Patch, x_refsource_MISC)
- security-advisories@github.com (Patch, x_refsource_MISC)
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_MISC, Release Notes)
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_MISC, Release Notes)
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_MISC, Release Notes)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-33176?
- CVE-2026-33176 is a high-severity vulnerability in Rails Activesupport, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-03-24.
- How severe is CVE-2026-33176?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.