GitHub Advisoryadvisory · PyPI
GHSA-wwv5-g3v4-889x Tornado: Incomplete fix for CVE-2026-35536: cookie attribute injection re-opened via the legacy case-insensitive `**kwargs` path in `set_cookie`
LOW
Official page ↗
- Ecosystem
- PyPI
- Packages
- tornado
- Severity
- Low
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-74
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-01
Affected packages
• PyPI tornado: >= 6.5.5, < 6.5.8 → fixed in 6.5.8
Description
Summary
The CVE-2026-35536 fix added a validation loop that rejects `[\x00-\x20\x3b\x7f]`, but only for the
hardcoded lowercase keys `name`/`domain`/`path`/`samesite`. The still-live deprecated `kwargs` path
writes attacker-supplied attribute values straight into the `Morsel` with no validation, and because
`Morsel.__setitem__` is case-insensitive, a capitalized kwarg (`Domain=`, `Path=`, `SameSite=`, `Max-Age=`)
routes to the same reserved attribute while bypassing the loop — re-opening `;`-delimited attribute injection.
```python
self.set_cookie("sid", "abc", Domain="evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None")
-> Set-Cookie: sid=abc; Domain=evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None; Path=/
Sanity (the canonical lowercase named arg IS blocked):
self.set_cookie("sid", "abc", domain="evil.com; Secure") # -> http.cookies.CookieError
```
The patch's regression test (`SetCookieForbiddenCharHandler`) only exercises the four named params, never the
`kwargs` path, so the gap is not regression-covered.
Affected code
• `tornado/web.py` → `RequestHandler.set_cookie`: the validation loop covers only the lowercase named args;
the trailing `if kwargs:` loop does `morsel[k] = v` with no character validation.
Steps to reproduce
`GET /upper` (uses `Domain=` kwarg) emits `Set-Cookie: c_upper=v; Domain=evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None; Path=/`; `GET /lower` (uses lowercase
`domain=`) returns a `CookieError`.
Impact
Injection of independent cookie attributes (force/drop `Secure`/`HttpOnly`/`SameSite`, rebind `Domain`/`Path`)
— the same impact CVE-2026-35536 closed, via the sibling path the patch missed. Conditional on the app using
a capitalized/legacy keyword.
Suggested remediation
Apply the same `[\x00-\x20\x3b\x7f]` validation to every entry in the `**kwargs` loop (after normalizing the
key case), or remove the deprecated kwargs path; add a regression test for capitalized kwargs.
Credit
Reported as part of an incomplete-patch measurement study (responsible disclosure).
Related
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-74 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component weakness
References
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/security/advisories/GHSA-wwv5-g3v4-889x web
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/pull/3704 web
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/pull/3706 web
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/commit/6ef836e43e1278530041376adb32504daa977b91 web
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/commit/da284767eae8e1f0484f123b8c3225f6465b09c7 web
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado package
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/releases/tag/v6.5.8 web