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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2026-43966: ninenines cowlib · HTTP Request/Response Splitting

Affects ninenines cowlibSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.3 Medium : upgrade to 4401b858f2229abb3ea115c60924f6c77e5f8aa3 when convenient.

Data as of 29 Oct 2026, 19:04 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
6.3Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 17% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 4401b858f2229abb3ea115c60924f6c77e5f8aa3
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 8 Jun 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq 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.

What to do

Upgrade ninenines cowlib to 4401b858f2229abb3ea115c60924f6c77e5f8aa3.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
nineninescowlibAffected
  • >=2.9.0
Fixed in–
nineninescowlibAffected
  • ≥ a8b793db3d6ffe91d62f81baf41b1dab4cd78fb6, < 4401b858f2229abb3ea115c60924f6c77e5f8aa3
Fixed in
  • 4401b858f2229abb3ea115c60924f6c77e5f8aa3
Hexcowlibpkg:hex/cowlibOther threatsAffected
  • =2.9.0
Fixed in–
Hexcowlibpkg:hex/cowlibOther threatsAffected
  • >=2.9.0
Fixed in–

CPE configurations (1)

  • cpe:2.3:a:ninenines:cowlib:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

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

AI-suggested

If you cannot patch yet, users should avoid using attacker-controlled input in structured HTTP headers via cow_http_struct_hd:item/1 or related functions or implement additional input validation and sanitization to prevent CRLF injection.

Description

Improper Neutralization of CRLF Sequences in HTTP Headers ('HTTP Request/Response Splitting') vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows HTTP response splitting via non-VCHAR bytes in structured-fields string values. cow_http_struct_hd:escape_string/2 in cowlib only escapes \ and ", passing all other bytes through verbatim. This creates an encoder/decoder asymmetry: the matching parser accepts only printable ASCII (0x20–0x7E, excluding " and \), but the encoder emits any byte including CR and LF. An application that builds a structured HTTP header via cow_http_struct_hd:item/1 (or a higher-level wrapper such as cow_http_hd:wt_protocol/1) from attacker-controlled input can have \r\n injected into the serialized header value. Once on the wire, the injected CRLF terminates the current header and any following bytes are interpreted as a new header, enabling HTTP response splitting. This issue affects cowlib: from 2.9.0 onward.

References

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