go-libp2p denial of service vulnerability from lack of resource management

Vulnerability Description

go-libp2p is the offical libp2p implementation in the Go programming language. Version `0.18.0` and older of go-libp2p are vulnerable to targeted resource exhaustion attacks. These attacks target libp2p’s connection, stream, peer, and memory management. An attacker can cause the allocation of large amounts of memory, ultimately leading to the process getting killed by the host’s operating system. While a connection manager tasked with keeping the number of connections within manageable limits has been part of go-libp2p, this component was designed to handle the regular churn of peers, not a targeted resource exhaustion attack. Users are advised to upgrade their version of go-libp2p to version `0.18.1` or newer. Users unable to upgrade may consult the denial of service (dos) mitigation page for more information on how to incorporate mitigation strategies, monitor your application, and respond to attacks.

References

• https://github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p/security/advisories/GHSA-j7qp-mfxf-8xjw
• https://github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p/commit/15d7dfbf54264ead8e6f49ca658d79c90635e2de
• https://docs.libp2p.io/reference/dos-mitigation/