CVE-2026-16728: undici vulnerable to downstream response desynchronization via retry interceptor
Undici’s interceptors.retry() can deliver a response whose body length does not match the Content-Length header exposed to the application after a retry or resume of a partial response. Applications that use interceptors.retry() and forward upstream response headers and bodies downstream, for example proxy or gateway applications, may emit an invalid HTTP response with a stale Content-Length header. This can lead to downstream response desynchronization, connection hangs, or response corruption in clients or intermediaries that rely on the forwarded framing metadata.
A malicious or faulty upstream can respond to a range request with a 206 Partial Content response such as:
Content-Range: bytes 0-99/300
Content-Length: 300
and then send only 99 bytes before closing the socket. interceptors.retry() can then retry with Range: bytes=99-99, receive the final byte, and deliver a 100-byte body to the application while the response headers still contain Content-Length: 300 from the first response.
The bug requires interceptors.retry() to be enabled, an upstream that returns a partial response with a mismatched framing header, and a downstream forwarder that does not remove or recalculate Content-Length.
References
- cna.openjsf.org/security-advisories.html
- github.com/advisories/GHSA-8xcm-r25x-g524
- github.com/nodejs/undici/commit/1b5a5312c3a7d7a30c31bf0d000b39a8a2531e1c
- github.com/nodejs/undici/commit/2b3f749336d356bbbc50192f87f6cf7bc714721a
- github.com/nodejs/undici/commit/4a9dafb16ff43880cf590e6d9c2aeee25fbff6d7
- github.com/nodejs/undici/commit/4fd5a0c61e627f928b7003adc4ffe1e55ec63420
- github.com/nodejs/undici/commit/cba3a52ac2e7abcc4e656d82af8579ea82c2bb9e
- github.com/nodejs/undici/commit/e11a68ed4ff345c79402476f7a00d473443e318d
- github.com/nodejs/undici/releases/tag/v6.28.0
- github.com/nodejs/undici/releases/tag/v7.29.0
- github.com/nodejs/undici/releases/tag/v8.9.0
- github.com/nodejs/undici/security/advisories/GHSA-8xcm-r25x-g524
- hackerone.com/reports/3828685
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-16728
Code Behaviors & Features
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