A flaw in Node.js HTTP client can cause a request desynchronization for Node.js-based forwarding proxies that rebuild outbound headers from the visible IncomingMessage headers while piping the original body to a reused backend connection.
Node.js can omit headers beyond maxHeadersCount / maxHeaderPairs from req.headers, req.rawHeaders, and req.headersDistinct, while still using those omitted headers internally for HTTP message framing. In particular, Content-Length can be hidden from userland while the request body is still delivered.
This vulnerability affects all supported release lines: Node.js 22, Node.js 24, and Node.js 26.
Weakness
The product acts as an intermediary HTTP agent (such as a proxy or firewall) in the data flow between two entities such as a client and server, but it does not interpret malformed HTTP requests or responses in ways that are consistent with how the messages will be processed by those entities that are at the ultimate destination.
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Hardened Images | RedHat | nodejs22-main-22.23.2-2.3.hum1 | * |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | RedHat | nodejs24-main-24.18.1-0.1.hum1 | * |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | RedHat | nodejs26-main-26.7.0-1.5.1.hum1 | * |
Extended Description
HTTP requests or responses (“messages”) can be malformed or unexpected in ways that cause web servers or clients to interpret the messages in different ways than intermediary HTTP agents such as load balancers, reverse proxies, web caching proxies, application firewalls, etc. For example, an adversary may be able to add duplicate or different header fields that a client or server might interpret as one set of messages, whereas the intermediary might interpret the same sequence of bytes as a different set of messages. For example, discrepancies can arise in how to handle duplicate headers like two Transfer-encoding (TE) or two Content-length (CL), or the malicious HTTP message will have different headers for TE and CL. The inconsistent parsing and interpretation of messages can allow the adversary to “smuggle” a message to the client/server without the intermediary being aware of it. This weakness is usually the result of the usage of outdated or incompatible HTTP protocol versions in the HTTP agents.