blaze: Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests
CVE-2026-73494 is a high-severity inconsistent interpretation of HTTP requests vulnerability in blaze from Http4s, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.4 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an unauthenticated attacker, without any action from a user. Affected blaze versions: < 0.23.18; >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M42. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.63% chance of exploitation within 30 days, higher than 51% of scored CVEs.
High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.
What to do
- Check which version of blaze you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
- Read the advisory on github.com for workarounds and exact fixed builds.
- Until you can update, restrict network access to the affected service so it is not reachable from untrusted networks.
Affected products and versions
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Http4s | blaze | < 0.23.18; >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M42 | Not stated |
| Org.http4s | blaze-http_2.13 | < 0.23.18; >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M42 | Not stated |
| Org.http4s | blaze-http_3 | < 0.23.18; >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M42 | Not stated |
| Org.http4s | http4s-blaze-server_2.13 | < 0.23.18 | Not stated |
Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.
How the severity score breaks down
- Attack vector
- NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
- Attack complexity
- HighSuccess depends on conditions outside the attacker's control.
- Privileges required
- NoneNo account or login is needed.
- User interaction
- NoneNo action by a victim is required.
- Scope
- UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
- Confidentiality
- HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
- Integrity
- HighData or code can be modified at will.
- Availability
- NoneAvailability is not affected.
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N. Scored by CNA (github.com).
Official description
blaze is a Scala library for building asynchronous pipelines, with a focus on network IO. Prior to 0.23.18 and from 1.0.0-M1 until 1.0.0-M42, five HTTP/1.1 conformance laxities in the hand-written Java parser under http/src/main/java/org/http4s/blaze/http/parser/ can cause blaze to derive a different request boundary than a stricter fronting intermediary. A default BlazeServerBuilder accepts invalid or valueless header field names that violate tchar syntax, obsolete folded field lines (obs-fold), unsupported Transfer-Encoding values, duplicate Content-Length fields, and requests containing both Transfer-Encoding and Content-Length. If a lenient or legacy proxy forwards the malformed bytes but interprets them differently, the disagreement can permit front-end authorization bypass, response-queue poisoning on pooled backend connections, or cache poisoning. Exploitation requires a pair of disagreeing parsers; no non-default blaze configuration is required. The affected checks are enforced in BodyAndHeaderParser and Http1ServerParser. This issue is fixed in versions 0.23.18 and 1.0.0-M42.
Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.
The underlying weakness: Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests
The product acts as an intermediary HTTP agent (such as a proxy or firewall) in the data flow between two entities such as a client and server, but it does not interpret malformed HTTP requests or responses in ways that are consistent with how the messages will be processed by those entities that are at the ultimate destination.
How developers prevent this class of flaw
- Use a web server that employs a strict HTTP parsing procedure, such as Apache.
- Terminate the client session after each request.
More Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests vulnerabilities (CWE-444)
Timeline
- CVE record published.
- CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
- Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).
References
Patches and release notes
- github.com/http4s/blaze/commit/3f7c022e306631b006dcb43a1d7f65c0d1966f17
- github.com/http4s/blaze/commit/4eec2007806aa9acfefb00ebb636ddc39a147a96
- github.com/http4s/blaze/commit/927b67753a78c13c4445dac9307f511f5c4878c3
- github.com/http4s/blaze/commit/a54bc9cd31758335c7f24e29763622fd03fcf734
- github.com/http4s/blaze/commit/c47d9675f87603f11b32a11d503626bdf9be5c7a
- github.com/http4s/blaze/commit/e871ebb1d27f50c98fd56988526ce42d0fee74d6
- github.com/http4s/blaze/releases/tag/v0.23.18
- github.com/http4s/blaze/releases/tag/v1.0.0-M42
Other vulnerabilities in blaze
- 7.4 High severity
- 7.5 High severity
Recent Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests vulnerabilities
- 8.2 High severity
- 9.1 Critical severity
- 8.2 High severity
- 8.3 High severity
- 8.3 High severity
- 8.3 High severity
Spotted an error? Tell us.