CVE-2026-52734

ZEBRA: Unbounded memory leak in mempool download pipeline via timeout path cancel_handles retention

MEDIUM
5.3
CVSS Score
Published: August 18, 2026 at 07:19 PM UTC
Updated: October 22, 2026 at 10:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorZebra

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Severity
MEDIUM5.3
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

ZEBRA is a Zcash node written entirely in Rust. Prior to 4.5.0, an unauthenticated P2P peer can cause the mempool download pipeline to retain transactions after verification reaches the outer RATE_LIMIT_DELAY timeout. In zebrad/src/components/mempool/downloads.rs, Downloads::poll_next removed cancel_handles entries after success and ordinary verification errors, but tokio::time::error::Elapsed did not carry the UnminedTxId needed to remove the timed-out entry. Each retained cancel_handles entry could hold a full Gossip::Tx(UnminedTx), while normal mined-transaction cleanup could not match attacker transactions and no periodic garbage collection or count cap existed. Sustained traffic therefore caused monotonic memory growth until swap pressure degraded the node or the operating system terminated the zebrad process for exhausting memory. This issue is fixed in version 4.5.0.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 4.5.0
Affected range stops below 4.5.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

5.3MEDIUMGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
LOW
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-401

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