CVE-2026-40395
Varnish Enterprise before 6.0.16r12 allows a "workspace overflow" denial of service (daemon panic) for shared VCL.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.24%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
Varnish Enterprise before 6.0.16r12 allows a "workspace overflow" denial of service (daemon panic) for shared VCL. The headerplus.write_req0() function from vmod_headerplus updates the underlying req0, which is normally the original read-only request from which req is derived (readable and writable from VCL). This is useful in the active VCL, after amending req, to prepare a refined req0 before switching to a different VCL with the return (vcl(<label>)) action. This is for example how the Varnish Controller operates shared VCL deployments. If the amended req contained too many header fields for req0, this would have resulted in a workspace overflow that would in turn trigger a panic and crash the Varnish Enterprise server. This could be used as a Denial of Service attack vector by malicious clients.
- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.24% probability · 15th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-770
- Affected
- varnish-software/varnish enterprise
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
References
- https://docs.varnish-software.com/security/VEV00003/Vendor Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.