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Vulnerability record · CVE-2026-7790 · published 11 May 2026

CVE-2026-7790: Ninenines cowlib uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability

NNinenines · Cowlib

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.

8.7 CVSS 4.0 High EPSS 0.79% · top 45.4% CWE-400 · Uncontrolled resource consumption
8.7CVSS 4.0 base score
0.79%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
3References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

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.

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:

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-7790.html Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/ninenines/cowlib/commit/a4b8039ce8c93ab00867ef6b7e888822c09f4369 Patch
https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-7790 Third Party Advisory

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2026-7790), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.