fast-uri Backslash Authority Divergence (CVE-2026-16221)
CVE-2026-16221 Published on July 19, 2026
fast-uri vulnerable to host confusion via literal backslash authority delimiter
Impact: fast-uri versions from 2.3.1 through 4.1.0 (including the 3.x line up to 3.1.3 and the 2.x line up to 2.4.2) do not treat a literal backslash character (U+005C) as an authority delimiter. Node's native WHATWG URL parser, used by fetch, undici, and Node's http and https clients, normalizes the backslash to a forward slash for special schemes such as http, https, ws, wss, ftp, and file. As a result, the two parsers extract different hosts from the same input string. Applications that use fast-uri to enforce host-based policy such as allowlists, denylists, loopback or SSRF filtering, redirect validation, or outbound proxy routing before passing the same URL into Node's URL or fetch consumers can be steered to an unintended destination, including cloud metadata endpoints, loopback, or internal hosts.
Patches: upgrade to fast-uri 4.1.1, 3.1.4, or 2.4.3.
Workarounds: none.
Weakness Type
Interpretation Conflict
Product A handles inputs or steps differently than Product B, which causes A to perform incorrect actions based on its perception of B's state. This is generally found in proxies, firewalls, anti-virus software, and other intermediary devices that monitor, allow, deny, or modify traffic based on how the client or server is expected to behave.
Affected Versions
fast-uri:- Version 2.3.1 and below 2.4.3 is affected.
- Version 2.4.3 is unaffected.
- Version 3.0.0 and below 3.1.4 is affected.
- Version 3.1.4 is unaffected.
- Version 4.0.0 and below 4.1.1 is affected.
- Version 4.1.1 is unaffected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.