VulnerabilityPublished 30 Sep 2026Updated 3 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-97688: urllib3 · Chunked Deflate streaming can enter an infinite loop

Affects pdflySource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited : upgrade to 0.5.1_26 when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

Severity

Unrated

Rated by Threat Radar · CVSS not yet scored by NVD

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 21% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 0.5.1_26

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: Low
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

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

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, 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: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the Vulnerable System are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 30 Sep 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: 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 26 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.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, 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 pdfly to 0.5.1_26.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Homebrewpdfly`pkg:brew/pdfly`Other threats	Affected >=0.5.1_5 <0.5.1_26	Fixed in 0.5.1_26

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

Description

### Impact urllib3's streaming API is designed for the efficient handling of large HTTP responses by reading content in chunks instead of loading the entire response body into memory at once. urllib3 can decompress response bodies according to the HTTP `Content-Encoding` header. When streaming a compressed, chunked response, urllib3 first consumes data already buffered by the decoder before reading the next HTTP chunk. However, urllib3 versions from 2.6.2 through 2.7.0 could enter an infinite loop when a chunked response contained bytes after the end of the Deflate stream. If the decompressed body exceeded the requested streaming chunk size, Python's zlib implementation could retain the trailing bytes as unconsumed input after reaching the end of the compressed stream. urllib3 would repeatedly attempt to decode those same bytes without making progress or reading more data from the network. A malicious server could exploit this behavior to cause excessive CPU usage and prevent the affected request from completing on the client. Network read timeouts would not interrupt the loop because no further socket operation was required. ### Affected usages Applications and libraries using urllib3 versions 2.6.2 through 2.7.0 may be affected when all of the following conditions are met: 1. Compressed responses from an untrusted source are streamed using `HTTPResponse.stream(amt=N)` or `HTTPResponse.read_chunked(amt=N)` with a positive, finite chunk size. 2. Content decoding is enabled. 3. The response uses both `Transfer-Encoding: chunked` and `Content-Encoding: deflate`. 4. The decoded body exceeds the requested chunk size and the encoded body contains bytes after the end of the Deflate stream. `HTTPResponse.stream()` uses a finite chunk size by default and is therefore affected when the other conditions are met. ### Remediation Upgrade to urllib3 2.8.0, in which the Deflate decoder stops accepting input after reaching the end of the compressed stream and no longer reports trailing bytes as data that can produce more decoded output. If upgrading is not immediately possible, disable automatic content decoding for responses from untrusted sources by setting `decode_content=False`, or reject streamed responses using the Deflate content encoding. Applications that disable automatic decoding must handle the compressed response safely at another layer.

References

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