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HIGH7.5

GHSA-cp4q-fqw9-4hf6

Http4s Ember HTTP/2: unbounded continuation frame accumulation

Quick fix

GHSA-cp4q-fqw9-4hf6 — org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.12: upgrade to the fixed version with the command below.

# pom.xml: bump <version>0.23.35</version> for org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.12

Details

When Ember receives an HTTP/2 `HEADERS` or `PUSH_PROMISE` frame without the `END_HEADERS` flag, it buffers the header block fragment and waits for subsequent `CONTINUATION` frames. These accumulate unbounded until the connection closes.

### Impact

A remote, unauthenticated peer can exhaust the heap on any Ember endpoint that has HTTP/2 enabled:

- **ember-server with `.withHttp2`**: any HTTP/2 client can trigger this against any reachable path (including paths that return 404). No authentication is required because the attack completes before the request is decoded. - **ember-client with `.withHttp2`**: a malicious or compromised origin server can trigger this via the response header block. A single in-flight request is sufficient.

Memory consumption is bounded only by the attacker's upload bandwidth and the connection lifetime.

### Prerequisites

- `EmberServerBuilder` configured with `.withHttp2`. - For the server: the attacker can establish an HTTP/2 connection - For the client: the application makes a request to an attacker-controlled origin. HTTP/2 incoming headers exceeding the configured size limit are buffer in order to generate an informative HTTP 413 response. If a client does not stop sending headers, this leads to memory exhaustion.

### Patches

The fix bounds the accumulated header-block size at `SETTINGS_MAX_HEADER_LIST_SIZE` (derived from `EmberServerBuilder.maxHeaderSize` / `EmberClientBuilder.maxResponseHeaderSize`). When a `CONTINUATION` frame would push the accumulated block over that limit, the connection is terminated with `GOAWAY`. The `receiveHeadersTimeout` additionally bounds how long an incomplete header block may remain open.

### Workarounds

- Disable HTTP/2 (`.withHttp2`) until upgraded (default). It is off by default. - If HTTP/2 must remain enabled, place ember behind a reverse proxy that terminates HTTP/2 and speaks HTTP/1.1 to ember.

Are you affected?

Enter the version of the package you're using.

Affected packages

Maven/org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.12
Introduced in: 0Fixed in: 0.23.35
Fix# pom.xml: bump <version>0.23.35</version> for org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.12
Maven/org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.13
Introduced in: 0Fixed in: 0.23.35
Fix# pom.xml: bump <version>0.23.35</version> for org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.13
Maven/org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_3
Introduced in: 0Fixed in: 0.23.35
Fix# pom.xml: bump <version>0.23.35</version> for org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_3
Maven/org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.13
Introduced in: 1.0.0-M1Fixed in: 1.0.0-M47
Fix# pom.xml: bump <version>1.0.0-M47</version> for org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_2.13
Maven/org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_3
Introduced in: 1.0.0-M1Fixed in: 1.0.0-M47
Fix# pom.xml: bump <version>1.0.0-M47</version> for org.http4s:http4s-ember-core_3

References