HTTP Request Smuggling in Erlang OTP (inets) before v28.4.1
CVE-2026-23941 Published on March 13, 2026
Request smuggling via first-wins Content-Length parsing in inets httpd
Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests ('HTTP Request Smuggling') vulnerability in Erlang OTP (inets httpd module) allows HTTP Request Smuggling.
This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/inets/src/http_server/httpd_request.erl and program routines httpd_request:parse_headers/7.
The server does not reject or normalize duplicate Content-Length headers. The earliest Content-Length in the request is used for body parsing while common reverse proxies (nginx, Apache httpd, Envoy) honor the last Content-Length value. This violates RFC 9112 Section 6.3 and allows front-end/back-end desynchronization, leaving attacker-controlled bytes queued as the start of the next request.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 until OTP 28.4.1, OTP 27.3.4.9 and OTP 26.2.5.18, corresponding to inets from 5.10 until 9.6.1, 9.3.2.3 and 9.1.0.5.
Weakness Type
What is a HTTP Request Smuggling Vulnerability?
When malformed or abnormal HTTP requests are interpreted by one or more entities in the data flow between the user and the web server, such as a proxy or firewall, they can be interpreted inconsistently, allowing the attacker to "smuggle" a request to one device without the other device being aware of it.
CVE-2026-23941 has been classified to as a HTTP Request Smuggling vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-23941
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Affected Versions
Erlang OTP:- Version 5.10 and below * is affected.
- Version pkg:otp/inets@5.10 and below pkg:otp/inets@* is affected.
- Version 17.0 and below * is affected.
- Before * is affected.