CVE-2026-53937: MCP Kotlin SDK is the Kotlin Multiplatform software de
CVE-2026-53937 analysis covering impact, affected products, versions, remediation, and cross-checked defender guidance.
CVE-2026-53937 is a vulnerability published by NVD on 9/9/2026.
What happened
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.
Affected products and versions
- NVD has not published a normalized affected-product configuration yet.
Severity and weakness
CVSS: MEDIUM 6.2. Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Weaknesses: CWE-400, CWE-770.
Known exploitation
No CISA KEV entry is currently attached to the NVD record.
What defenders should do
- Identify whether the affected product and version range exists in production.
- Review vendor advisories and release notes before change windows.
- Patch, upgrade, disable the vulnerable component, or apply vendor mitigations.
- Verify the running version after deployment, not only the package inventory.
Official and supporting references
- No vendor advisory tagged by NVD at draft time.