CVE-2026-97688

urllib3: Chunked Deflate streaming can enter an infinite loop

MEDIUM
5.3
CVSS Score
Published: September 29, 2026 at 03:32 PM UTC
Updated: October 13, 2026 at 08:21 PM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsURLLIB3URLLIB3

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Severity
MEDIUM5.3
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.3%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

urllib3 is an HTTP client library for Python. From 2.6.2 until 2.8.0, HTTPResponse.stream and HTTPResponse.read_chunked can enter an infinite loop because the Deflate decoder retains trailing bytes as unconsumed input after reaching end-of-stream and repeatedly decodes them without progress. The issue occurs when an untrusted server sends a chunked Deflate response whose decoded body exceeds a positive finite chunk size and whose encoded body has trailing bytes, specifically a response with Transfer-Encoding: chunked and Content-Encoding: deflate, content decoding enabled, and the positive finite amt=N streaming chunk size. The attack mechanism is that a malicious server returns a compressed chunked response with trailing bytes after the Deflate stream. The impact is excessive CPU usage and a request that does not complete, and network read timeouts do not interrupt the loop because no further socket read occurs. This issue is fixed in version 2.8.0.

Affected

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

2.6.2 ≤ v < 2.8.0
Affected range stops below 2.8.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (3)

x_refsource_CONFIRMMitigationVendor Advisory
Source: cverecord
https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/security/advisories/GHSA-gh4c-6fx4-qh6g
x_refsource_MISCRelease Notes
Source: cverecord
https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/releases/tag/2.8.0

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

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

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-835

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