Service interruption via retained decoded header state
Published Jul 16, 2026 · Updated Jul 16, 2026
Resource exhaustion in H2O before commit 9265bdd allows remote attackers to interrupt service through crafted HTTP/2 streams. The HTTP/2 HPACK request parser decodes attacker-controlled header fields without a hard field-count limit, allowing amplified header state to remain allocated while streams are deliberately stalled. No authentication or user interaction is required, but exploitation depends on HTTP/2 exposure and configurations whose existing limits do not bound the retained decoded state.
Summary
What happened
Resource exhaustion in H2O before commit 9265bdd allows remote attackers to interrupt service through crafted HTTP/2 streams. The HTTP/2 HPACK request parser decodes attacker-controlled header fields without a hard field-count limit, allowing amplified header state to remain allocated while streams are deliberately stalled. No authentication or user interaction is required, but exploitation depends on HTTP/2 exposure and configurations whose existing limits do not bound the retained decoded state.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-54340
- Published
- Jul 16, 2026
- Updated
- Jul 16, 2026
- Vendor
- H2O Project
- Product
- H2O
- Classifications
- CWE-770, CWE-400, T1499
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 16, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jul 16, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=< 9265bdd
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
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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