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fix: drop HTTP/2 header fields containing CR, LF or NUL (#1258) - #1271

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fix: drop HTTP/2 header fields containing CR, LF or NUL (#1258)#1271
pjfanning wants to merge 1 commit into
apache:1.4.xfrom
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cherry pick 46d2ffc #1258

Motivation:
Outgoing HTTP/2 header fields were HPACK-encoded without checking for CR, LF or NUL in the name or value. The HTTP/1.1 renderer scans each rendered header for CR/LF and drops it, but the HTTP/2 path had no equivalent, so an attacker-influenced value (a RawHeader, CustomHeader or a response trailer built from user data) was encoded verbatim. RFC 9113 8.2.1 forbids these characters in a field name or value. On a native HTTP/2 leg HPACK is length-prefixed so this is not direct frame splitting, but it violates the spec and enables HTTP/2 -> HTTP/1.1 downgrade smuggling when an intermediary re-serialises the message, and it means the mitigation an application relies on under HTTP/1.1 silently disappears under HTTP/2.

Modification:
In HeaderCompression, the single point every outgoing header field (regular headers, trailers and pseudo-headers all arrive here as key/value pairs) passes through before HPACK encoding, drop any field whose name or value contains CR, LF or NUL, logging at debug. Debug rather than warning because the value can be attacker-influenced, so a warning would be a log-flooding vector, and the HTTP/1.1 renderer drops silently too.

Result:
CR/LF/NUL in an HTTP/2 header name or value can no longer reach the wire; the offending field is dropped, matching the HTTP/1.1 renderer, whether it rides in the header block or a response trailer.

Tests:

  • sbt "http2-tests/testOnly org.apache.pekko.http.impl.engine.http2.Http2ServerSpec" - pass (125 tests); two new tests assert a CRLF-bearing response header and a CRLF-bearing response trailer header are dropped while a valid sibling trailer survives. Verified both fail with the fix stashed (the injected set-cookie reaches the decoded headers).
  • sbt http-core/mimaReportBinaryIssues - pass (internal impl.engine.http2 change, no public API).

References:
None - aligns HTTP/2 header rendering with the HTTP/1.1 CR/LF guard (RFC 9113 8.2.1)

Motivation:
Outgoing HTTP/2 header fields were HPACK-encoded without checking for
CR, LF or NUL in the name or value. The HTTP/1.1 renderer scans each
rendered header for CR/LF and drops it, but the HTTP/2 path had no
equivalent, so an attacker-influenced value (a RawHeader, CustomHeader
or a response trailer built from user data) was encoded verbatim. RFC
9113 8.2.1 forbids these characters in a field name or value. On a
native HTTP/2 leg HPACK is length-prefixed so this is not direct frame
splitting, but it violates the spec and enables HTTP/2 -> HTTP/1.1
downgrade smuggling when an intermediary re-serialises the message,
and it means the mitigation an application relies on under HTTP/1.1
silently disappears under HTTP/2.

Modification:
In `HeaderCompression`, the single point every outgoing header field
(regular headers, trailers and pseudo-headers all arrive here as
key/value pairs) passes through before HPACK encoding, drop any field
whose name or value contains CR, LF or NUL, logging at debug. Debug
rather than warning because the value can be attacker-influenced, so a
warning would be a log-flooding vector, and the HTTP/1.1 renderer drops
silently too.

Result:
CR/LF/NUL in an HTTP/2 header name or value can no longer reach the
wire; the offending field is dropped, matching the HTTP/1.1 renderer,
whether it rides in the header block or a response trailer.

Tests:
- sbt "http2-tests/testOnly org.apache.pekko.http.impl.engine.http2.Http2ServerSpec" - pass (125 tests); two new tests assert a CRLF-bearing response header and a CRLF-bearing response trailer header are dropped while a valid sibling trailer survives. Verified both fail with the fix stashed (the injected set-cookie reaches the decoded headers).
- sbt http-core/mimaReportBinaryIssues - pass (internal impl.engine.http2 change, no public API).

References:
None - aligns HTTP/2 header rendering with the HTTP/1.1 CR/LF guard (RFC 9113 8.2.1)
@pjfanning pjfanning added this to the 1.4.1 milestone Sep 3, 2026
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