Cookie Request Header Injection via Unvalidated Encoder in cow_cookie:cookie/1
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-43969 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | EEF |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-05-11 19:16:25 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-05-21 13:57:49 UTC |
| Description | Improper Neutralization of CRLF Sequences ('CRLF Injection') vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows HTTP request splitting and cookie smuggling via unvalidated cookie name and value fields. cow_cookie:cookie/1 in cowlib builds a client-side Cookie: request header from a list of name-value pairs without validating either field. An attacker who controls the cookie names or values passed to this function can inject ;, ,, CR, LF, or TAB characters into the serialized header. This enables two classes of attack: cookie smuggling within a single header (e.g. injecting "; admin=1" to introduce a phantom cookie that the receiving server treats as authentic) and HTTP request header splitting (injecting CRLF to append arbitrary headers or smuggle a complete second request against a shared upstream proxy). The decoder side (parse_cookie_name/1, parse_cookie_value/1) and setcookie/3 already validate and reject these characters; the encoder alone is missing the check. This issue affects cowlib from 2.9.0. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v4.0 2.1 LOW from 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS: 0.000220000 probability, percentile 0.065650000 (date 2026-05-27)
Problem Types: CWE-93 | CWE-93 CWE-93 Improper Neutralization of CRLF Sequences ('CRLF Injection')
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | Secondary | 2.1 | LOW | CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/C... |
| 4.0 | CNA | CVSS | 2.1 | LOW | CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N |
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Primary | 3.2 | LOW | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N |
CVSS v4.0 Breakdown
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
CVSS v3.1 Breakdown
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)
Vendor Declared Affected Products
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-43969.html | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | cna.erlef.org | Vendor Advisory |
| github.com/erlef/cowlib/commit/177953dd51540da11090666c1f007214127a1144 | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | github.com | Patch |
| osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-43969 | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | osv.dev | Third Party Advisory |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
Vendor Comments And Credit
Discovery Credit
CNA: Peter Ullrich (en)
Additional Advisory Data
Workarounds
CNA: Validate inputs into cow_cookie:cookie/1 to only include valid cookie name and value characters as defined in RFC 6265 Section 4.1.1 before passing them to the function.