CVE-2026-45352CWE-1285CWE-20CWE-770

cpp-httplib DoS: Negative chunk-size in chunked Transfer-Encoding

Medium · published May 29, 2026

CVSS v3.1
5.3
EPSS
0%
Percentile
40.9
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

cpp-httplib is a C++11 single-file header-only cross platform HTTP/HTTPS library. Prior to 0.43.4, negative chunk-size in chunked Transfer-Encoding causes unbounded memory allocation and process crash. The ChunkedDecoder::read_payload function in cpp-httplib (httplib.h) parses the chunk-size field of HTTP chunked transfer encoding using std::strtoul(). Per the C standard (§7.22.1.4), strtoul silently accepts a leading minus sign, performing unsigned wrap-around: strtoul("-2", …, 16) returns ULONG_MAX − 1 (0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFE). The library's only guard (line 12833) rejects ULONG_MAX (the result of "-1"), but any other negative value such as "-2" passes validation. The resulting near-maximum value is stored in chunk_remaining and controls how many bytes the server's read loop consumes from the network. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.43.4.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
5.3 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00486 · 40.9th percentile
Weaknesses
CWE-1285 · Improper Validation of Specified Index, Position, or Offset in Input; CWE-20 · Improper Input Validation; CWE-770 · Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Published
2026-05-29T19:14Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 29 MAY 19:14Z
    cpp-httplib DoS: Negative chunk-size in chunked Transfer-Encoding
    cvelistv5