Server denial of service via unbounded body accumulation
Published May 6, 2025 · Updated May 6, 2025
Resource exhaustion in cpp-httplib before 0.20.1 allows remote attackers to crash or hang servers via oversized request bodies. The read_content_chunked function and associated stream logic accumulate chunk data in req.body or a content receiver without enforcing the configured total payload limit. No authentication or valid route is required because body parsing occurs before routing, and continued unterminated chunks exhaust process or shared-host memory.
Summary
What happened
Resource exhaustion in cpp-httplib before 0.20.1 allows remote attackers to crash or hang servers via oversized request bodies. The read_content_chunked function and associated stream logic accumulate chunk data in req.body or a content receiver without enforcing the configured total payload limit. No authentication or valid route is required because body parsing occurs before routing, and continued unterminated chunks exhaust process or shared-host memory.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-46728
- Published
- May 6, 2025
- Updated
- May 6, 2025
- Vendor
- Yuji Hirose
- Product
- cpp-httplib
- Classifications
- CWE-400, T1499
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 6, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 6, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=< 0.20.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
- Chunked request memory-exhaustion proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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