Resource exhaustion in Patrickjuchli Basic-Ftp

CVE-2026-44240

basic-ftp is an FTP client for Node.js. Prior to 5.3.1, basic-ftp is vulnerable to client-side denial of service when parsing FTP control-channel multiline responses. A malicious or compromised FTP server can send an unterminated multiline response during the initial FTP banner phase, before authentication. The client keeps appending attacker-controlled data into FtpContext._partialResponse and repeatedly reparses the accumulated buffer without enforcing a maximum control response size. As a result, an application using basic-ftp can remain stuck in connect() while memory and CPU usage grow under attacker-controlled input. This can lead to process-level denial of service, container OOM kills, worker restarts, queue backlog, or service degradation in applications that automatically connect to FTP endpoints. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.3.1.

Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)

Published · last modified .

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.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (43.3th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 43rd percentile — 43.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-44240: held from 0.005 to 0.005.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: +0.001

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-44240?
CVE-2026-44240 is a high-severity vulnerability in Patrickjuchli Basic-Ftp, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-05-12.
How severe is CVE-2026-44240?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.