CVE-2026-97688

MEDIUM CVSS 4.0: 6.9 EPSS 0.29%
Updated Oct 13, 2026
Python
Parameter Value
CVSS 6.9 (MEDIUM)
Affected Versions 2.6.2 — 2.8.0
Fixed In 2.8.0
Type CWE-835
Vendor Python
Public PoC No

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.

Attack Parameters

Attack Vector
Network
Can be exploited remotely
Attack Complexity
Low
Easy to exploit
Attack Requirements
None
No additional conditions
Privileges Required
None
No privileges needed
User Interaction
None
No user interaction needed

Impact Assessment

Confidentiality
None
No data leak
Integrity
None
No data modification
Availability
Low
Partial disruption

CVSS Vector v4.0

Weakness Type (CWE)

Vulnerable Products 1

Configuration From (including) Up to (excluding)
Python Urllib3
cpe:2.3:a:python:urllib3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.6.2 2.8.0