CVE-2019-16785

HTTP Request Smuggling: LF vs CRLF handling in Waitress

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: December 20, 2019 at 11:00 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 02:22 AM UTC
6 products affected across 6 vendorsDebian LinuxFedoraOpenStack

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 3%

Description

Waitress through version 1.3.1 implemented a "MAY" part of the RFC7230 which states: "Although the line terminator for the start-line and header fields is the sequence CRLF, a recipient MAY recognize a single LF as a line terminator and ignore any preceding CR." Unfortunately if a front-end server does not parse header fields with an LF the same way as it does those with a CRLF it can lead to the front-end and the back-end server parsing the same HTTP message in two different ways. This can lead to a potential for HTTP request smuggling/splitting whereby Waitress may see two requests while the front-end server only sees a single HTTP message. This issue is fixed in Waitress 1.4.0.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-444

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