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GHSA-5m98-qgg9-wh84 CVE-2024-30251 PYSEC-2026-1098

aiohttp vulnerable to Denial of Service when trying to parse malformed POST requests

High PyPI
Severity
7.5 / 10
High · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS)
1.09%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 65.51% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited
No
Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness
CWE-835 Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition ('Infinite Loop')
Fix
3.9.4
Upgrade aiohttp to this version or later

Description

Summary

An attacker can send a specially crafted POST (multipart/form-data) request. When the aiohttp server processes it, the server will enter an infinite loop and be unable to process any further requests.

Impact

An attacker can stop the application from serving requests after sending a single request.


For anyone needing to patch older versions of aiohttp, the minimum diff needed to resolve the issue is (located in _read_chunk_from_length()):

diff --git a/aiohttp/multipart.py b/aiohttp/multipart.py
index 227be605c..71fc2654a 100644
--- a/aiohttp/multipart.py
+++ b/aiohttp/multipart.py
@@ -338,6 +338,8 @@ class BodyPartReader:
         assert self._length is not None, "Content-Length required for chunked read"
         chunk_size = min(size, self._length - self._read_bytes)
         chunk = await self._content.read(chunk_size)
+        if self._content.at_eof():
+            self._at_eof = True
         return chunk
 
     async def _read_chunk_from_stream(self, size: int) -> bytes:

This does however introduce some very minor issues with handling form data. So, if possible, it would be recommended to also backport the changes in: https://github.com/aio-libs/aiohttp/commit/cebe526b9c34dc3a3da9140409db63014bc4cf19 https://github.com/aio-libs/aiohttp/commit/7eecdff163ccf029fbb1ddc9de4169d4aaeb6597 https://github.com/aio-libs/aiohttp/commit/f21c6f2ca512a026ce7f0f6c6311f62d6a638866

Affected versions

PyPI

PackageVulnerableFixed in
aiohttp
< 3.9.4
3.9.4

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

aiohttp PyPI → 3.9.4

pip
pip install --upgrade "aiohttp>=3.9.4"
poetry
poetry add "aiohttp>=3.9.4"
uv
uv add "aiohttp>=3.9.4"

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 7.5

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Weakness

CWE-835: Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition ('Infinite Loop')

The product contains an iteration or loop with an exit condition that cannot be reached, i.e., an infinite loop.

References

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Last updated by the source
  3. Latest EPSS score
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
GHSA-pqxq-w44r-73xw
AIOHTTP: Pure-Python parser request smuggling
Medium Also affects aiohttp
GHSA-gx76-c99x-2c96
AIOHTTP: Cookie from subdomain can remove Host-Only Scope from existing cookies
Low Also affects aiohttp
GHSA-f9xw-jh8m-3mwq
AIOHTTP: Absolute-form request targets can spoof Request.scheme
Medium Also affects aiohttp
GHSA-9xw5-w5jj-pvcg
AIOHTTP: File descriptor exhaustion in multipart requests
High Also affects aiohttp
GHSA-6cjc-53gc-5rqm
AIOHTTP: Connector pool exhaustion via Max-Age overflow
Medium Also affects aiohttp
GHSA-5wr8-gcqf-gqf3
aiohttp server lacks an initial request/header timeout
High Also affects aiohttp
GHSA-494j-54xm-rwp3
AIOHTTP: Secure attribute not enforced for shared cookie
Medium Also affects aiohttp
GHSA-2g87-pp6c-29x5
aiohttp: Multiple instances of excessive or unbounded memory/CPU use
High Also affects aiohttp
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