CVE-2026-45352
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.
- Score
- CVSS 3.1 7.5 High
- Status
- Modified - security-advisories@github.com
- Published
- 2026-05-29
- Last modified
- 2026-06-02
- Weaknesses
- CWE-1285, CWE-20, CWE-770
Affected products
References
- https://github.com/yhirose/cpp-httplib/security/advisories/GHSA-h6wq-j5mv-f3q8
