VulnerabilityPublished 7 Mar 2026Updated 9 Mar 2026

CVE-2026-29076: yhirose cpp-httplib · Uncontrolled Recursion

Affects yhirose cpp-httplibSource CVE Database V5

Compare

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.9 Medium : upgrade to 0.37.0 when convenient.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 06:59 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.9Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 50% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 0.37.0

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: High
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 7 Mar 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 29 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade cpp-httplib and yhirose/cpp-httplib to 0.37.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
yhirosecpp-httplib	Affected <0.37.0	Fixed in 0.37.0
GitHubyhirose/cpp-httplib`pkg:github/yhirose/cpp-httplib`Other threats	Affected <0.37.0	Fixed in 0.37.0

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2026-29076, organizations should immediately upgrade all instances of cpp-httplib to version 0.37.0 or later, where the vulnerability is patched. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, consider implementing input validation or filtering at the network perimeter to detect and block HTTP POST requests containing suspicious or unusually long filename* parameters in multipart Content-Disposition headers. Employ web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules targeting malformed multipart requests to reduce exposure. Additionally, monitor server logs for repeated crashes or segmentation faults related to HTTP POST handling, which may indicate exploitation attempts. Developers should review their use of regex parsing for multipart headers and consider alternative parsing methods that do not rely on recursive backtracking. Finally, incorporate fuzz testing and static analysis in the development lifecycle to detect similar uncontrolled recursion issues proactively.

Description

cpp-httplib is a C++11 single-file header-only cross platform HTTP/HTTPS library. Prior to version 0.37.0, cpp-httplib uses std::regex (libstdc++) to parse RFC 5987 encoded filename* values in multipart Content-Disposition headers. The regex engine in libstdc++ implements backtracking via deep recursion, consuming one stack frame per input character. An attacker can send a single HTTP POST request with a crafted filename* parameter that causes uncontrolled stack growth, resulting in a stack overflow (SIGSEGV) that crashes the server process. This issue has been patched in version 0.37.0.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2026-29076 is denial of service due to server process crashes triggered by stack overflow. Organizations using vulnerable versions of cpp-httplib in their HTTP/HTTPS servers or clients may experience service interruptions if targeted by crafted HTTP POST requests exploiting this vulnerability. This can degrade service availability, disrupt business operations, and potentially lead to cascading failures if the affected service is critical or part of a larger system. Although the vulnerability does not allow data disclosure or modification, repeated exploitation could be used as part of a broader attack to degrade system reliability or distract incident response teams. The impact is particularly significant for high-availability environments or internet-facing services where attackers can send arbitrary HTTP requests. Since cpp-httplib is a popular lightweight library embedded in various C++ applications, the scope of affected systems can be broad, especially in industries relying on custom or embedded HTTP services.

CWE-674Uncontrolled Recursion (opens in a new tab)
Class weakness
The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
Implementation
Ensure that an end condition will be reached under all logic conditions. The end condition may include checking against the depth of recursion and exiting with an error if the recursion goes too deep. The complexity of the end condition contributes to the effectiveness of this action.
Implementation
Increase the stack size.
Attack patterns
Serialized Data with Nested Payloads (opens in a new tab)
Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).
CWE-1333Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product uses a regular expression with a worst-case computational complexity that is inefficient and possibly exponential.
Architecture and Design
Use regular expressions that do not support backtracking, e.g. by removing nested quantifiers.
System Configuration
Set backtracking limits in the configuration of the regular expression implementation, such as PHP's pcre.backtrack_limit. Also consider limits on execution time for the process.
Implementation
Do not use regular expressions with untrusted input. If regular expressions must be used, avoid using backtracking in the expression.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 14 Mar 2026, 19:54 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-674, CWE-1333

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats