Bug 2439353 (CVE-2026-2391) - CVE-2026-2391 qs: qs's arrayLimit bypass in comma parsing allows denial of service
Summary: CVE-2026-2391 qs: qs's arrayLimit bypass in comma parsing allows denial of se...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-2391
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security
QA Contact:
URL:
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Depends On: 2439540 2439541 2439544 2439547 2439550 2439552 2439553 2439571 2439572 2439573 2439574 2439575 2439576 2439582 2439584 2439585 2439538 2439539 2439542 2439543 2439545 2439546 2439548 2439549 2439551 2439554 2439555 2439556 2439557 2439558 2439559 2439560 2439561 2439562 2439563 2439564 2439565 2439566 2439567 2439568 2439569 2439570 2439577 2439578 2439579 2439580 2439581 2439583
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-02-12 16:02 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-07-02 16:48 UTC (History)
132 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
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Last Closed:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-02-12 16:02:11 UTC
### Summary
The `arrayLimit` option in qs does not enforce limits for comma-separated values when `comma: true` is enabled, allowing attackers to cause denial-of-service via memory exhaustion. This is a bypass of the array limit enforcement, similar to the bracket notation bypass addressed in GHSA-6rw7-vpxm-498p (CVE-2025-15284).

### Details
When the `comma` option is set to `true` (not the default, but configurable in applications), qs allows parsing comma-separated strings as arrays (e.g., `?param=a,b,c` becomes `['a', 'b', 'c']`). However, the limit check for `arrayLimit` (default: 20) and the optional throwOnLimitExceeded occur after the comma-handling logic in `parseArrayValue`, enabling a bypass. This permits creation of arbitrarily large arrays from a single parameter, leading to excessive memory allocation.

**Vulnerable code** (lib/parse.js: lines ~40-50):
```js
if (val && typeof val === 'string' && options.comma && val.indexOf(',') > -1) {
    return val.split(',');
}

if (options.throwOnLimitExceeded && currentArrayLength >= options.arrayLimit) {
    throw new RangeError('Array limit exceeded. Only ' + options.arrayLimit + ' element' + (options.arrayLimit === 1 ? '' : 's') + ' allowed in an array.');
}

return val;
```
The `split(',')` returns the array immediately, skipping the subsequent limit check. Downstream merging via `utils.combine` does not prevent allocation, even if it marks overflows for sparse arrays.This discrepancy allows attackers to send a single parameter with millions of commas (e.g., `?param=,,,,,,,,...`), allocating massive arrays in memory without triggering limits. It bypasses the intent of `arrayLimit`, which is enforced correctly for indexed (`a[0]=`) and bracket (`a[]=`) notations (the latter fixed in v6.14.1 per GHSA-6rw7-vpxm-498p).

### PoC
**Test 1 - Basic bypass:**
```
npm install qs
```

```js
const qs = require('qs');

const payload = 'a=' + ','.repeat(25);  // 26 elements after split (bypasses arrayLimit: 5)
const options = { comma: true, arrayLimit: 5, throwOnLimitExceeded: true };

try {
  const result = qs.parse(payload, options);
  console.log(result.a.length);  // Outputs: 26 (bypass successful)
} catch (e) {
  console.log('Limit enforced:', e.message);  // Not thrown
}
```
**Configuration:**
- `comma: true`
- `arrayLimit: 5`
- `throwOnLimitExceeded: true`

Expected: Throws "Array limit exceeded" error.
Actual: Parses successfully, creating an array of length 26.


### Impact
Denial of Service (DoS) via memory exhaustion.


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