CVE-2026-14180
Description
A flaw was found in the ChunkReader component of the Undertow HTTP server, which is used by WildFly and JBoss EAP to handle chunked transfer encoding. The issue occurs because the parser uses a single internal variable to store both the remaining chunk size and state flags. By sending a specially crafted request with an extremely large chunk size, an attacker can cause these values to overlap, tricking the parser into thinking a request has finished prematurely. This can allow a second, "smuggled" request to be processed out of sync, potentially bypassing security controls.
Statement
The Red Hat Product Security team has assessed the severity of this vulnerability as Moderate, given that exploitation requires a frontend proxy to forward oversized, non-standard chunk-size values to the backend Undertow server. Successful exploitation allows an attacker to perform HTTP request smuggling, leading to request desynchronization. The vulnerability's root cause is an internal bitmask overlap in the ChunkReader state management logic where large chunk-size values collide with internal parser flags.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.3 | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | N/A |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | Low | N/A | N/A |
| Availability Impact | None | N/A | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Non-Repudiation,Access Control
Technical Impact: Unexpected State; Hide Activities; Bypass Protection Mechanism
An attacker could create HTTP messages to exploit a number of weaknesses including 1) the message can trick the web server to associate a URL with another URL's webpage and caching the contents of the webpage (web cache poisoning attack), 2) the message can be structured to bypass the firewall protection mechanisms and gain unauthorized access to a web application, and 3) the message can invoke a script or a page that returns client credentials (similar to a Cross Site Scripting attack).
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank Gai Tanaka for reporting this issue.
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