Description
Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent processes chunked HTTP trailers in http.c through evhttp_read_trailer and merges them into request headers. The fix introduces evhttp_parse_headers_impl_ and a temporary trailer header list. An unauthenticated remote attacker can place security-sensitive fields in trailers so that an upstream proxy and the libevent application interpret different effective headers, enabling header smuggling, authorization bypass, proxy-header spoofing, or cache poisoning. The fix parses trailers into a temporary header list and discards them instead of merging them into req->input_headers. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha.
References5
- github.com/libevent/libevent/commit/87e8e44fa774e9677b089b1a511…
- github.com/libevent/libevent/commit/b847071141b3827900d536594ec…
- github.com/libevent/libevent/releases/tag/release-2.1.13-stable
- github.com/libevent/libevent/releases/tag/release-2.2.2-alpha
- github.com/libevent/libevent/security/advisories/GHSA-2gmv-p5m7…
Metrics
- CVSS 4.0
-
6.3
MEDIUM
Score source: CNA
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X - EPSS — exploit probability
- 1% percentile: 44 · as of 10 November 2026
- CWE
- CWE-444
Could this be exploited in your environment?
A patch closes the known hole. A penetration test shows what an attacker can still reach — with proof.