Podgrab: Denial of service via race condition in WebSocket handler
Summary
Podgrab, a self-hosted podcast manager, has a race condition in its WebSocket handler: two shared maps (activePlayers and allConnections) are read and written by goroutines without a mutex. A remote, unauthenticated attacker who opens several WebSocket connections to the /ws endpoint and sends messages in a loop can crash the process. Restoring service requires operator intervention.
Affected
- akhilrex Podgrab, all commits up to and including 032248091294dbf5b6a439a5afd93788a7cc647f
- Release versions: Unknown.
Fixed in
Unknown. No fixed version or commit has been confirmed.
Workaround
- Do not expose the instance directly to the internet; place it behind a VPN or an authenticating reverse proxy.
- Restrict access to /ws at the proxy or firewall where possible.
- The referenced researcher write-up also states that /ws is mounted outside Basic Auth, so the PASSWORD setting may not protect this endpoint. Verify this on your instance.
- Configure an automatic container restart policy and monitor for crashes to limit downtime.
Exploitation
- CISA SSVC: automatable yes, technical impact partial, exploitation none.
- Exploited in the wild: Unknown; not listed in CISA KEV.
- A public researcher write-up exists; its PoC content has not been verified.
Our recommendation
- Identify all Podgrab deployments and check whether they are reachable from outside the network.
- Remove direct internet exposure and apply the workarounds above until a fixed version is confirmed.
- Monitor the upstream repository and this CVE for a fix, and update promptly once one is available.
- Priority: medium for most SMEs; high if an instance is internet-facing or used for business content.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- Researcher disclosure (gist) gist.github.com
- VulnCheck advisory www.vulncheck.com
- OSV vulnerability record osv.dev
- OpenCVE CVE-2026-104057 app.opencve.io
- Podgrab project repository github.com
- Nixpkgs security tracking issue github.com
- Strix CVE-2026-104057 www.strix.ai
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 1 Nov 2026, 06:18.
Original description (NVD)
Podgrab contains an unauthenticated denial-of-service vulnerability caused by unsynchronized concurrent access to shared maps (activePlayers and allConnections) in its WebSocket handler, where Wshandler and HandleWebsocketMessages goroutines read and write these maps without a mutex. A remote attacker can open multiple WebSocket connections to the /ws endpoint and send messages in a loop to trigger a Go runtime data race that crashes the process, causing a denial of service that requires operator intervention to restore service.
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
Affected? We can help.
We check whether your systems are affected, install updates and close the gap – continuously with the System Health Checker if you wish.