Severity by source
AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
S:C reflects smuggling impact on other users' requests; C:L added as smuggled requests may expose cross-user data; AC:H retained for mandatory two-tier proxy architecture.
Primary rating from NVD.
CVSS VectorNVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Lifecycle Timeline
3DescriptionCVE.org
A request smuggling vulnerability exists in libsoup's HTTP/1 header parsing logic. The soup_message_headers_append_common() function in libsoup/soup-message-headers.c unconditionally appends each header value without validating for duplicate or conflicting Content-Length fields. This allows an attacker to send HTTP requests containing multiple Content-Length headers with differing values.
AnalysisAI
HTTP request smuggling in libsoup's header parsing enables unauthenticated remote attackers to inject malformed requests containing multiple conflicting Content-Length headers, potentially bypassing security controls or poisoning shared connection state in two-tier deployments. The flaw resides in soup_message_headers_append_common() within libsoup/soup-message-headers.c, which blindly appends header values without validating for duplicate or contradictory Content-Length fields - a direct violation of RFC 7230. No active exploitation has been confirmed (not in CISA KEV), EPSS stands at 0.03% (8th percentile), and SSVC rates exploitation as none with partial technical impact, placing this firmly in the low-urgency tier despite its network-accessible attack vector.
Technical ContextAI
libsoup is GNOME's HTTP client/server library, packaged across Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10 (cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_*). The vulnerability originates in soup_message_headers_append_common() in libsoup/soup-message-headers.c, which appends every received header value without deduplicating or rejecting headers that carry conflicting semantic meaning. RFC 7230 §3.3.2 mandates that servers reject requests containing more than one Content-Length header with differing values as malformed. When libsoup silently accepts both, the length ambiguity creates an inconsistent interpretation between any upstream reverse proxy (which may honor the first Content-Length) and libsoup itself (which may honor the last). This is the classic CWE-444 (Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests - HTTP Request Smuggling) root cause: desynchronization between two HTTP processors parsing the same byte stream.
RemediationAI
An upstream fix has been submitted as GitLab merge request !513 at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libsoup/-/merge_requests/513; however, no tagged patched release version has been independently confirmed from available data - monitor https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-2708 and Red Hat Bugzilla #2440743 (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2440743) for RHEL package updates and apply them when published. As a compensating control for deployments where libsoup services sit behind a reverse proxy, configure the proxy to normalize or reject requests containing multiple Content-Length headers before forwarding - nginx's proxy_pass with default settings normalizes headers, while HAProxy can be configured with http-request deny if content-length header count gt 1; this introduces a small risk of rejecting edge-case legitimate traffic. If libsoup is used in a direct client-to-server capacity without an intermediary, the smuggling vector is unexploitable and no immediate action is required beyond applying the patch when available.
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-25306
GHSA-2m77-r9w3-w44v