CVE-2026-28434

Published Mar 4, 2026

Last updated 4 days ago

CVSS medium 5.3

Overview

Description
cpp-httplib is a C++11 single-file header-only cross platform HTTP/HTTPS library. Prior to 0.35.0, when a request handler throws a C++ exception and the application has not registered a custom exception handler via set_exception_handler(), the library catches the exception and writes its message directly into the HTTP response as a header named EXCEPTION_WHAT. This header is sent to whoever made the request, with no authentication check and no special configuration required to trigger it. The behavior is on by default. A developer who does not know to opt in to set_exception_handler() will ship a server that leaks internal exception messages to any client. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.35.0.
Source
security-advisories@github.com
NVD status
Analyzed
Products
cpp-httplib

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Secondary
Base score
5.3
Impact score
1.4
Exploitability score
3.9
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Severity
MEDIUM

Weaknesses

security-advisories@github.com
CWE-200
nvd@nist.gov
NVD-CWE-noinfo

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Configurations

Related CVEs

  1. cpp-httplib is a C++11 single-file header-only cross platform HTTP/HTTPS library. Prior to 0.35.0, cpp-httplib (httplib.h) does not enforce Server::set_payload_max_length() on the decompressed request body when using HandlerWithContentReader (streaming ContentReader) with Content-Encoding: gzip (or other supported encodings). A small compressed payload can expand beyond the configured payload limit and be processed by the application, enabling a payload size limit bypass and potential denial of service (CPU/memory exhaustion). This vulnerability is fixed in 0.35.0.•CVE-2026-28435
  2. cpp-httplib is a C++11 single-file header-only cross platform HTTP/HTTPS library. Prior to version 0.30.1, a Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability exists in cpp-httplib due to the unsafe handling of compressed HTTP request bodies (Content-Encoding: gzip, br, etc.). The library validates the payload_max_length against the compressed data size received from the network, but does not limit the size of the decompressed data stored in memory.•CVE-2026-22776
  3. cpp-httplib is a C++11 single-file header-only cross platform HTTP/HTTPS library. Prior to version 0.30.0, the ``write_headers`` function does not check for CR & LF characters in user supplied headers, allowing untrusted header value to escape header lines. This vulnerability allows attackers to add extra headers, modify request body unexpectedly & trigger an SSRF attack. When combined with a server that supports http1.1 pipelining (springboot, python twisted etc), this can be used for server side request forgery (SSRF). Version 0.30.0 fixes this issue.•CVE-2026-21428
  4. cpp-httplib is a C++11 single-file header-only cross platform HTTP/HTTPS library. Prior to 0.27.0, a vulnerability allows attacker-controlled HTTP headers to influence server-visible metadata, logging, and authorization decisions. An attacker can supply X-Forwarded-For or X-Real-IP headers which get accepted unconditionally by get_client_ip() in docker/main.cc, causing access and error logs (nginx_access_logger / nginx_error_logger) to record spoofed client IPs (log poisoning / audit evasion). This vulnerability is fixed in 0.27.0.•CVE-2025-66577
  5. cpp-httplib is a C++11 single-file header-only cross platform HTTP/HTTPS library. Prior to 0.27.0, a vulnerability allows attacker-controlled HTTP headers to influence server-visible metadata, logging, and authorization decisions. An attacker can inject headers named REMOTE_ADDR, REMOTE_PORT, LOCAL_ADDR, LOCAL_PORT that are parsed into the request header multimap via read_headers() in httplib.h (headers.emplace), then the server later appends its own internal metadata using the same header names in Server::process_request without erasing duplicates. Because Request::get_header_value returns the first entry for a header key (id == 0) and the client-supplied headers are parsed before server-inserted headers, downstream code that uses these header names may inadvertently use attacker-controlled values. Affected files/locations: cpp-httplib/httplib.h (read_headers, Server::process_request, Request::get_header_value, get_header_value_u64) and cpp-httplib/docker/main.cc (get_client_ip, nginx_access_logger, nginx_error_logger). Attack surface: attacker-controlled HTTP headers in incoming requests flow into the Request.headers multimap and into logging code that reads forwarded headers, enabling IP spoofing, log poisoning, and authorization bypass via header shadowing. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.27.0.•CVE-2025-66570

References

Sources include official advisories and independent security research.