CVE-2026-47427
PoC moderateUnauthenticated DoS in GitHub MCP Server via nil pointer dereference
GitHub MCP Server versions prior to 1.1.0 contain a nil pointer dereference (CWE-476) in the CompletionsHandler function in pkg/github/server.go, which accesses the ref field of a completion request without first verifying it is present. Any unauthenticated client able to send JSON-RPC messages to the server can trigger the flaw by issuing a completion/complete request with a missing or empty ref field. Because the dereference happens before any authentication or token validation, the resulting Go runtime panic crashes the server and yields a complete denial of service. All deployments running an affected version are potentially affected, with the greatest risk for instances reachable over a network by unauthenticated clients, while locally run stdio instances are only reachable by their local client. No widespread exploitation is reported (0.4% EPSS, not in CISA KEV), but a public security advisory documents the issue and the triggering request is trivial to craft.
What to do: Upgrade to GitHub MCP Server 1.1.0 or later, which adds the missing nil check in CompletionsHandler. Until patched, restrict any HTTP/SSE-exposed instance with authentication or network allowlisting, since the crashing request requires no credentials. Audit deployments to determine which are network-reachable versus local-only, and watch for unauthenticated completion/complete requests that crash the process.
| GitHub MCP Server | all versions prior to 1.1.0 |
Order-of-magnitude estimate by the model from install counts, market share and public scan data it knows; verify before quoting.
GitHub MCP Server is GitHub's official MCP Server. Prior to 1.1.0, the CompletionsHandler function in pkg/github/server.go accesses params.Ref without first checking whether it is nil, so a completion/complete request with a missing or empty ref field triggers a nil pointer dereference and a Go runtime panic; because the crash occurs before any authentication or token validation, any unauthenticated client able to send JSON-RPC messages can crash the server, resulting in a complete denial of service. This issue is fixed in version 1.1.0.
- Vendors
- github
- Products
- mcp server
- Weakness
- CWE-476
- Vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
In the news0 stories
No ingested article mentions this CVE yet.