GHSA-8423-8FGW-73VQ

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-09-01 20:17 – Updated: 2026-09-01 20:17
VLAI
Summary
tornado: multipart split() creates huge temp list before max_parts check -> memory amplification DoS (httputil.py:34)
Details

Description

Summary

parse_multipart_form_data (httputil.py:34) calls data.split(b"--"+boundary+b"\r\n") before the max_parts check (:35). A 600KB body with 100k parts creates a 100k-element transient list first, then rejects transient memory amplification (each split element is a copy). Pre-auth HTTP DoS.

Root cause

parts = data[:final_boundary_index].split(b"--" + boundary + b"\r\n")  # :34  huge list first
if len(parts) > config.max_parts:                                       # :35  check after
    raise HTTPInputError("multipart/form-data has too many parts")

PoC

gist: https://gist.github.com/afldl/649861f25d39b53b7edbe0298e171617 poc.py + output.txt (100k parts from 600KB transient list).

Fix

Count separators without materializing the list (e.g. data.count(b"--"+boundary) first).

Credit

Reported by afldl, 2026-07.

Severity
6.9 (Medium)
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Show details on source website
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "database_specific": {
        "last_known_affected_version_range": "\u003c= 6.5.7"
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "PyPI",
        "name": "tornado"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "6.5.8"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-770"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-09-01T20:17:38Z",
    "nvd_published_at": null,
    "severity": "MODERATE"
  },
  "details": "## Description\n\n### Summary\n\n`parse_multipart_form_data` (httputil.py:34) calls\n`data.split(b\"--\"+boundary+b\"\\r\\n\")` **before** the `max_parts` check (:35).\nA 600KB body with 100k parts creates a 100k-element transient list first,\nthen rejects   transient memory amplification (each split element is a copy).\nPre-auth HTTP DoS.\n\n### Root cause\n\n```python\nparts = data[:final_boundary_index].split(b\"--\" + boundary + b\"\\r\\n\")  # :34  huge list first\nif len(parts) \u003e config.max_parts:                                       # :35  check after\n    raise HTTPInputError(\"multipart/form-data has too many parts\")\n```\n\n### PoC\n\ngist: https://gist.github.com/afldl/649861f25d39b53b7edbe0298e171617\n`poc.py` + `output.txt` (100k parts from 600KB   transient list).\n\n### Fix\n\nCount separators without materializing the list (e.g. `data.count(b\"--\"+boundary)` first).\n\n### Credit\n\nReported by afldl, 2026-07.",
  "id": "GHSA-8423-8fgw-73vq",
  "modified": "2026-09-01T20:17:38Z",
  "published": "2026-09-01T20:17:38Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/security/advisories/GHSA-8423-8fgw-73vq"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/pull/3704"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/commit/de85b3f87446e323e881bbaa3d5a74f4b76e5f05"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://gist.github.com/afldl/649861f25d39b53b7edbe0298e171617"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/releases/tag/v6.5.8"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V4"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "tornado: multipart split() creates huge temp list before max_parts check -\u003e memory amplification DoS (httputil.py:34)"
}



Log in or create an account to share your comment.




Tags
Taxonomy of the tags.





Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

Author Source Type Date Other

Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.



Related by attack behaviour

Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.