CVE-2026-53937

Medium

Description

MCP Kotlin SDK is the Kotlin Multiplatform software development kit for the Model Context Protocol. In versions 0.7.0 through 0.12.0, `ReadBuffer.append` in `kotlin-sdk-core/src/commonMain/kotlin/io/modelcontextprotocol/kotlin/sdk/shared/ReadBuffer.kt` writes every chunk of bytes received from the stdio transport into a `kotlinx.io.Buffer` with no size cap. Frames are extracted from that buffer only when a `\n` (0x0a) byte is observed. A peer that streams bytes without ever sending a newline causes the internal buffer to grow indefinitely until the JVM (or the surrounding host process) is OOM-killed. The leak is amplified by `StdioServerTransport` and `StdioClientTransport`, which both queue raw chunks through a `kotlinx.coroutines.channels.Channel<ByteArray>(Channel.UNLIMITED)` and then call `readBuffer.append(chunk)` without backpressure or size guard. This is a remote-pre-auth denial of service whenever an SDK stdio server's stdin is fed by an untrusted or attacker-controlled producer (for example: a host program that exec's the MCP server as a subprocess and pipes through bytes received from a network peer, or a sidecar wrapper that proxies bytes from an HTTP endpoint to the stdio transport). Version 0.13.0 fixes the issue.

SeverityMedium
CVSS6.2
Exploit probability—
ProductIo.modelcontextprotocol:kotlin-sdk
PublishedSep 9, 2026
First seenSep 9, 2026

How to fix

Sources list no fixed version or patch link for this vulnerability.

Affected products

ProductAffected versionsFixed in
modelcontextprotocol io.modelcontextprotocol:kotlin-sdk< 0.13.0—
modelcontextprotocol io.modelcontextprotocol:kotlin-sdk-client>= 0.7.0, < 0.13.0—
modelcontextprotocol io.modelcontextprotocol:kotlin-sdk-core< 0.13.0—
modelcontextprotocol io.modelcontextprotocol:kotlin-sdk-server>= 0.7.0, < 0.13.0—

Check your version

Choose the product and enter the version you run to see whether it falls in the affected range.

In the Intelligence 360 plan

Attack Surface Management

See the assets tied to your domains, the technologies they run and known vulnerabilities in one list.