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HonoApplication · Eclipse

CVE-2020-27217

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-11-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In Eclipse Hono version 1.3.0 and 1.4.0 the AMQP protocol adapter does not verify the size of AMQP messages received from devices. In particular, a device may send messages that are bigger than the max-message-size that the protocol adapter has indicated during link establishment. While the AMQP 1.0 protocol explicitly disallows a peer to send such messages, a hand crafted AMQP 1.0 client could exploit this behavior in order to send a message of unlimited size to the adapter, eventually causing the adapter to fail with an out of memory exception.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

In Eclipse Hono versions 1.3.0 and 1.4.0, the AMQP protocol adapter fails to validate incoming message sizes against the max-message-size parameter negotiated during AMQP link establishment. Although the AMQP 1.0 specification prohibits peers from sending messages exceeding the advertised limit, a crafted AMQP 1.0 client can exploit this oversight to send messages of unlimited size, causing the adapter to exhaust memory and crash with an out-of-memory exception.

MitigationUpgrade to Eclipse Hono version 1.4.1 or later which implements proper message size validation; additionally, implement network-level message size limits and monitor for memory exhaustion as defense-in-depth.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
HonoApplication
Affected:= 1.3.0= 1.4.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Eclipse Hono installation
    Locate the Eclipse Hono deployment in your environment. Check for Hono jars, containers, or Kubernetes/OpenShift deployments. Common paths include /opt/hono, /usr/local/hono, or container images containing 'eclipse-hono'. Identify which components are deployed.
    Affected if Eclipse Hono is present in the environment
  2. Determine the installed Eclipse Hono version
    Examine the version of the installed Eclipse Hono. For container deployments, run 'docker images' or 'kubectl get pods' and inspect image tags. For installed packages, check version metadata in the deployment manifests, pom.xml files, or version configuration files shipped with the installation.
    Affected if The version is exactly 1.3.0 or exactly 1.4.0
  3. Verify AMQP protocol adapter is enabled
    Inspect the deployed Hono components to confirm the AMQP protocol adapter is running. Check deployment configurations, Kubernetes manifests, or Docker Compose files for the presence of the AMQP adapter service. Look for components named 'amqp-adapter' or 'hono-adapter-amqp'.
    Affected if The AMQP protocol adapter is deployed and active

You are affected if Eclipse Hono version 1.3.0 or 1.4.0 is running with the AMQP protocol adapter enabled, as the adapter will not enforce the max-message-size limit and could be exhausted by oversized messages.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade to Eclipse Hono version 1.4.1 or later which implements proper message size validation; additionally, implement network-level message size limits and monitor for memory exhaustion as defense-in-depth.

Fix this in Hono Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-27217 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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