
CVE catalog
CVE-2026-7790
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in ninenines cowlib (cow_http_te module) allows Excessive Allocation. The chunked transfer-encoding parser in cow_http_te accepts an unbounded number o
- Severity
- High · CVSS 8.7
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/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 - Published
- Source
- [NVD] · [CVE record]
- EPSS
- 0.43% · Oct 25, 2026
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in ninenines cowlib (cow_http_te module) allows Excessive Allocation. The chunked transfer-encoding parser in cow_http_te accepts an unbounded number of hex digits in the chunk-size field. Each digit causes a bignum multiplication (Len * 16 + digit), so parsing N hex digits requires O(N²) CPU work and O(N) memory. Additionally, when input is drip-fed, the parser discards the accumulated length on each partial read and restarts from zero on resumption, raising the cost to O(N³). An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this by sending an HTTP/1.1 request with Transfer-Encoding: chunked and a very long chunk-size hex string to cause denial of service through CPU exhaustion and memory amplification. This vulnerability is associated with program file src/cow_http_te.erl and program routines cow_http_te:stream_chunked/2, cow_http_te:chunked_len/4. This issue affects cowlib: from 0.6.0 before 2.16.1.
Vulnerable and fixed packages
Distribution-reported package versions and fixes. These do not depend on matching against the OpenFactory package catalog.
| Distribution | Package | Release | Version | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian | erlang-cowlib | sid | 2.21.0-1 | fixed |
| Debian | erlang-cowlib | forky | 2.21.0-1 | fixed |
| Debian | erlang-cowlib | trixie | 1.3.0-3 | vulnerable |
| Debian | erlang-cowlib | bookworm | 1.3.0-3 | vulnerable |
| Cpe | erlang-cowlib | Not reported | Not reported | vulnerable |
| Cpe | cowlib | Not reported | 2.16.1 | fixed |
| Cpe | cowlib | Not reported | 2.16.1 | fixed |
Fixed-version evidence
| Distribution | Package | Type | Release | Fixed version | Urgency | Origin | Bugs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian | erlang-cowlib | source | sid | 2.17.1-1 | not yet assigned | Not reported | [1136446] |
| Debian | erlang-cowlib | source | forky | 2.17.1-1 | not yet assigned | Not reported | [1136446] |
| Debian | erlang-cowlib | source | trixie | (unfixed) | not yet assigned | Not reported | [1136446] |
| Debian | erlang-cowlib | source | bookworm | (unfixed) | not yet assigned | Not reported | [1136446] |
| Cpe | cowlib | cpe | Not reported | 2.16.1 | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
| Cpe | cowlib | cpe | Not reported | 2.16.1 | Not reported | NVD-CVE-2026-7790 | Not reported |
Notes
[trixie] erlang-cowlib: Minor issue [bookworm] erlang-cowlib: Minor issue
OpenFactory catalog packages
[Debian 12 (Bookworm)]
- [erlang-cowlib]Affected
Details (2)
1.3.0-3· arm64 · bookwormAffected
nvd · erlang-cowlib · debian · bookworm; nvd · erlang-cowlib · debian · 12
1.3.0-3+b1· amd64 · bookwormAffected
nvd · erlang-cowlib · debian · bookworm; nvd · erlang-cowlib · debian · 12
[Debian 13 (Trixie)]
- [erlang-cowlib]Affected
Source package: [erlang-cowlib]
Details (2)
1.3.0-3+b1· arm64 · trixieAffected
nvd · erlang-cowlib · debian · 13
1.3.0-3+b2· amd64 · trixieAffected
nvd · erlang-cowlib · debian · 13
Observed:
References
- [https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-7790.html]
- [https://github.com/ninenines/cowlib/commit/a4b8039ce8c93ab00867ef6b7e888822c09f4369]
- [https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-7790]
- [https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2026-7790]
- [https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-7790]
- [https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-7790]
- [https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-7790.json]
[Debian Security Tracker] · [FIRST EPSS] · [National Vulnerability Database (NVD)] · [OSV Package Vulnerability Database] · [Red Hat security advisories and VEX]