Summary
Workarounds
A plugin could use DataPacketDecodeEvent to rate-limit ActorEventPacket to prevent the attack.
Impact
The server handles ActorEventPacket to trigger consuming animations from vanilla clients when they eat food or drink potions.
This can be abused to make the server spam other clients, and to waste server CPU and memory. For every ActorEventPacket sent by the client, an animation event will be sent to every other player the attacker is visible to.
This is similar to various other vulnerabilities which were fixed in the network overhaul of PM4 (e.g. AnimatePacket and LevelSoundEventPacket), but somehow this one slipped through the net.
GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F has a CVSS score of 4.3 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, low privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (5.39.2); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
Remediation advice
The problem was addressed in aeea1150a772a005b92bd418366f1b7cf1a91ab5 by changing the mechanism for consuming animations to be fully controlled by the server. ActorEventPacket from the client is now discarded.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F? GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F is a medium-severity security vulnerability in pocketmine/pocketmine-mp (composer), affecting versions < 5.39.2. It is fixed in 5.39.2.
- How severe is GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F? GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F has a CVSS score of 4.3 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of pocketmine/pocketmine-mp are affected by GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F? pocketmine/pocketmine-mp (composer) versions < 5.39.2 is affected.
- Is there a fix for GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F? Yes. GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F is fixed in 5.39.2. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix GHSA-7HMV-4J2J-PP6F? Upgrade
pocketmine/pocketmine-mpto 5.39.2 or later.