GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Maven
GHSA-cp4q-fqw9-4hf6 Http4s Ember HTTP/2: unbounded continuation frame accumulation
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-69218
- Ecosystem
- Maven
- Packages
- org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.12, org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.13, org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_3
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-770
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-15
Affected packages
• Maven org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.12: < 0.23.35 → fixed in 0.23.35
• Maven org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.13: < 0.23.35 → fixed in 0.23.35
• Maven org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_3: < 0.23.35 → fixed in 0.23.35
• Maven org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.13: >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M47 → fixed in 1.0.0-M47
• Maven org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_3: >= 1.0.0-M1, < 1.0.0-M47 → fixed in 1.0.0-M47
Description
When Ember receives an HTTP/2 `HEADERS` or `PUSH_PROMISE` frame without the `END_HEADERS` flag, it buffers the header block fragment and waits for subsequent `CONTINUATION` frames. These accumulate unbounded until the connection closes.
Impact
A remote, unauthenticated peer can exhaust the heap on any Ember endpoint that has HTTP/2 enabled:
• ember-server with `.withHttp2`: any HTTP/2 client can trigger this against any reachable path (including paths that return 404). No authentication is required because the attack completes before the request is decoded.
• ember-client with `.withHttp2`: a malicious or compromised origin server can trigger this via the response header block. A single in-flight request is sufficient.
Memory consumption is bounded only by the attacker's upload bandwidth and the connection lifetime.
Prerequisites
• `EmberServerBuilder` configured with `.withHttp2`.
• For the server: the attacker can establish an HTTP/2 connection
• For the client: the application makes a request to an attacker-controlled origin.
HTTP/2 incoming headers exceeding the configured size limit are buffer in order to generate an informative HTTP 413 response. If a client does not stop sending headers, this leads to memory exhaustion.
Patches
The fix bounds the accumulated header-block size at `SETTINGS_MAX_HEADER_LIST_SIZE` (derived from `EmberServerBuilder.maxHeaderSize` / `EmberClientBuilder.maxResponseHeaderSize`). When a `CONTINUATION` frame would push the accumulated block over that limit, the connection is terminated with `GOAWAY`. The `receiveHeadersTimeout` additionally bounds how long an incomplete header block may remain open.
Workarounds
• Disable HTTP/2 (`.withHttp2`) until upgraded (default). It is off by default.
• If HTTP/2 must remain enabled, place ember behind a reverse proxy that terminates HTTP/2 and speaks HTTP/1.1 to ember.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-69218 Http4s is a Scala interface for HTTP services. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling weakness
References
- https://github.com/http4s/http4s/security/advisories/GHSA-cp4q-fqw9-4hf6 web
- https://github.com/http4s/http4s/commit/6e8eccd64a6a74ab4811897881e95e0e1b3a818e web
- https://github.com/http4s/http4s package
- https://github.com/http4s/http4s/releases/tag/v0.23.35 web
- https://github.com/http4s/http4s/releases/tag/v1.0.0-M47 web