---
id: CVE-2026-118761
aliases:
  - GHSA-8fmv-6rg5-5924
title: >-
  Kubeflow Pipelines: Pipeline archive upload allows decompression bomb to
  exhaust server memory
summary: >-
  Kubeflow Pipelines: Pipeline archive upload allows decompression bomb to
  exhaust server memory
severity: high
cvss: 7.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'
vendor: kubeflow
product: github.com/kubeflow/pipelines
ecosystem: go
affected:
  - github.com/kubeflow/pipelines < 0.0.0-20260831164314-ba9ae72cc860
  - github.com/kubeflow/pipelines
patched:
  - github.com/kubeflow/pipelines 0.0.0-20260831164314-ba9ae72cc860
published: '2026-10-30'
updated: '2026-10-30'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-30T23:30:04.079827623Z'
source: OSV
sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-8fmv-6rg5-5924'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/security/advisories/GHSA-8fmv-6rg5-5924
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-118761'
  - url: 'https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/pull/14171'
  - url: 'https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/pull/14186'
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/commit/1121d9a081fdf9e2107c39abb2cd8947727c6953
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/commit/ba9ae72cc860e3afbea232185e4132fc2896cac5
  - url: 'https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines'
  - url: 'https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/releases/tag/2.18.0'
  - url: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8fmv-6rg5-5924'
tags:
  - osv
  - go
  - ghsa
epss: 0.00495
epssPercentile: 0.42496
cwe:
  - CWE-409
ingestedAt: '2026-10-31T00:12:28.845Z'
---

## Overview

## Summary

The Kubeflow Pipelines API server decompresses uploaded pipeline archives without adequately bounding expanded data in affected versions. A small ZIP or gzip-compressed tar archive can consume disproportionately large amounts of memory while the server locates or reads the pipeline file, potentially exhausting API-server resources and interrupting service.

Multipart pipeline and pipeline-version upload processing decompresses the archive before namespace authorization, so a caller who can reach those endpoints does not need a successful pipeline-create authorization decision to trigger the issue. External authentication and network controls can restrict reachability. URL-import handlers authorize before fetching and decompressing a remote archive.

The amount of expansion needed to exhaust memory depends on deployment resource limits and concurrent activity; no particular archive is guaranteed to crash every deployment.

## Remediation

Upgrade the API server to **[Kubeflow Pipelines 2.18.0](https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/releases/tag/2.18.0)**. Versions through 2.17.3 are affected; the first affected release has not been established.

[PR #14171](https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/pull/14171) bounds compressed input and extracted pipeline data. [PR #14186](https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/pull/14186) strengthens the total tar traversal budget, including metadata and skipped entries. The 2.18 release also includes configurable upload and specification limits; operators should review the shipped settings and resource budget. These controls address pipeline archive amplification and do not establish general HTTP-body, temporary-disk, concurrency, or CPU limits.

Until upgrading, restrict access to upload and import endpoints and apply deployment-level request and resource controls. A compressed upload-size limit alone does not prevent decompression amplification. Regression tests cover compressed input, selected-entry boundaries, and tar traversal budgets; no deployed-server OOM test was performed for this assessment.

## Credit

[bugbunny.ai](https://bugbunny.ai) discovered and reported the issue. Ayush Gupta ([@Ayush-kathil](https://github.com/Ayush-kathil)) authored the archive fixes in #14171 and #14186, with Jeff Spahr ([@jeffspahr](https://github.com/jeffspahr)) contributing regression coverage to #14171.

[@BrianWillows](https://github.com/BrianWillows) later submitted a mixed report that included source analysis of pipeline-archive decompression.

## Affected packages

- `github.com/kubeflow/pipelines < 0.0.0-20260831164314-ba9ae72cc860`
- `github.com/kubeflow/pipelines`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `github.com/kubeflow/pipelines 0.0.0-20260831164314-ba9ae72cc860`