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CVE-2026-43970

Decompression Bomb in cow_spdy:inflate/2 Allows Memory Exhaustion via Crafted SPDY Frame

8.2 HighFix available

Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion.

cow_spdy:inflate/2 in cowlib passes peer-supplied compressed bytes directly to zlib:inflate/2 with no output size bound. The SPDY header compression dictionary (?ZDICT) is public, and zlib compresses long runs of repeated bytes at roughly 1024:1, so a few kilobytes of SPDY frame payload can decompress to gigabytes on the BEAM heap, OOM-killing the node. A single unauthenticated SPDY frame is sufficient to trigger the condition. The parsers for syn_stream, syn_reply, and headers frame types are all affected via cow_spdy:parse_headers/2.

This issue affects cowlib from 0.1.0 before 2.16.1.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

0.51%Up 0.4 points since May 14, 2026
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 8.2

Decompression Bomb in cow_spdy:inflate/2 Allows Memory Exhaustion via Crafted SPDY Frame

Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion.

cow_spdy:inflate/2 in cowlib passes peer-supplied compressed bytes directly to zlib:inflate/2 with no output size bound. The SPDY header compression dictionary (?ZDICT) is public, and zlib compresses long runs of repeated bytes at roughly 1024:1, so a few kilobytes of SPDY frame payload can decompress to gigabytes on the BEAM heap, OOM-killing the node. A single unauthenticated SPDY frame is sufficient to trigger the condition. The parsers for syn_stream, syn_reply, and headers frame types are all affected via cow_spdy:parse_headers/2.

This issue affects cowlib from 0.1.0 before 2.16.1.

Record
CVE-2026-43970
CVSS 4.0
8.2 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weakness
CWE-409
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2026-30131 8.2

Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion.

cow_spdy:inflate/2 in cowlib passes peer-supplied compressed bytes directly to zlib:inflate/2 with no output size bound. The SPDY header compression dictionary (?ZDICT) is public, and zlib compresses long runs of repeated bytes at roughly 1024:1, so a few kilobytes of SPDY frame payload can decompress to gigabytes on the BEAM heap, OOM-killing the node. A single unauthenticated SPDY frame is sufficient to trigger the condition. The parsers for syn_stream, syn_reply, and headers frame types are all affected via cow_spdy:parse_headers/2.

This issue affects cowlib from 0.1.0 before 2.16.1.

Record
EUVD-2026-30131
CVSS 4.0
8.2 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Updated
2026-11-02
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-84f2-rp86-235p 8.2

cowlib: Decompression Bomb in cow_spdy:inflate/2 Allows Memory Exhaustion via Crafted SPDY Frame

Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion.

cow_spdy:inflate/2 in cowlib passes peer-supplied compressed bytes directly to zlib:inflate/2 with no output size bound. The SPDY header compression dictionary (?ZDICT) is public, and zlib compresses long runs of repeated bytes at roughly 1024:1, so a few kilobytes of SPDY frame payload can decompress to gigabytes on the BEAM heap, OOM-killing the node. A single unauthenticated SPDY frame is sufficient to trigger the condition. The parsers for syn_stream, syn_reply, and headers frame types are all affected via cow_spdy:parse_headers/2.

This issue affects cowlib from 0.1.0 before 2.16.1.

Record
GHSA-84f2-rp86-235p
CVSS 4.0
8.2 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weakness
CWE-409
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 8.2

Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion.

cow_spdy:inflate/2 in cowlib passes peer-supplied compressed bytes directly to zlib:inflate/2 with no output size bound. The SPDY header compression dictionary (?ZDICT) is public, and zlib compresses long runs of repeated bytes at roughly 1024:1, so a few kilobytes of SPDY frame payload can decompress to gigabytes on the BEAM heap, OOM-killing the node. A single unauthenticated SPDY frame is sufficient to trigger the condition. The parsers for syn_stream, syn_reply, and headers frame types are all affected via cow_spdy:parse_headers/2.

This issue affects cowlib from 0.1.0 before 2.16.1.

Record
CVE-2026-43970
CVSS 4.0
8.2 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Weakness
CWE-409
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 8.2

Decompression Bomb in cow_spdy:inflate/2 Allows Memory Exhaustion via Crafted SPDY Frame

Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion.

cow_spdy:inflate/2 in cowlib passes peer-supplied compressed bytes directly to zlib:inflate/2 with no output size bound. The SPDY header compression dictionary (?ZDICT) is public, and zlib compresses long runs of repeated bytes at roughly 1024:1, so a few kilobytes of SPDY frame payload can decompress to gigabytes on the BEAM heap, OOM-killing the node. A single unauthenticated SPDY frame is sufficient to trigger the condition. The parsers for syn_stream, syn_reply, and headers frame types are all affected via cow_spdy:parse_headers/2.

This issue affects cowlib from 0.1.0 before 2.16.1.

Record
CVE-2026-43970
CVSS 4.0
8.2 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weakness
CWE-409
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2026-43970 8.2

Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion. cow_spdy:inflate/2 in cowlib passes peer-supplied compressed bytes directly to zlib:inflate/2 with no output size bound. The SPDY header compression dictionary (?ZDICT) is public, and zlib compresses long runs of repeated bytes at roughly 1024:1, so a few kilobytes of SPDY frame payload can decompress to gigabytes on the BEAM heap, OOM-killing the node. A single unauthenticated SPDY frame is sufficient to trigger the condition. The parsers for syn_stream, syn_reply, and headers frame types are all affected via cow_spdy:parse_headers/2. This issue affects cowlib from 0.1.0 before 2.16.1.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43970
CVSS 4.0
8.2 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVEEF-CVE-2026-43970 8.2

Decompression Bomb in cow_spdy:inflate/2 Allows Memory Exhaustion via Crafted SPDY Frame

Summary

Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion.

cow_spdy:inflate/2 in cowlib passes peer-supplied compressed bytes directly to zlib:inflate/2 with no output size bound. The SPDY header compression dictionary (?ZDICT) is public, and zlib compresses long runs of repeated bytes at roughly 1024:1, so a few kilobytes of SPDY frame payload can decompress to gigabytes on the BEAM heap, OOM-killing the node. A single unauthenticated SPDY frame is sufficient to trigger the condition. The parsers for syn_stream, syn_reply, and headers frame types are all affected via cow_spdy:parse_headers/2.

This issue affects cowlib from 0.1.0 before 2.16.1.

Configurations

The application must use cow_spdy:parse/2 to parse SPDY frames from an untrusted peer. cowboy itself does not use cow_spdy; only direct callers of the cow_spdy API are affected.

Solutions

Upgrade to cowlib 2.16.1 or later, in which the cow_spdy module has been removed entirely. No patched version of cow_spdy will be provided. Migrate away from SPDY, which has been deprecated since 2015 in favour of HTTP/2.

Record
EEF-CVE-2026-43970
CVSS 4.0
8.2 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weakness
CWE-409
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-84f2-rp86-235p 8.2

cowlib: Decompression Bomb in cow_spdy:inflate/2 Allows Memory Exhaustion via Crafted SPDY Frame

Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion.

cow_spdy:inflate/2 in cowlib passes peer-supplied compressed bytes directly to zlib:inflate/2 with no output size bound. The SPDY header compression dictionary (?ZDICT) is public, and zlib compresses long runs of repeated bytes at roughly 1024:1, so a few kilobytes of SPDY frame payload can decompress to gigabytes on the BEAM heap, OOM-killing the node. A single unauthenticated SPDY frame is sufficient to trigger the condition. The parsers for syn_stream, syn_reply, and headers frame types are all affected via cow_spdy:parse_headers/2.

This issue affects cowlib from 0.1.0 before 2.16.1.

Record
GHSA-84f2-rp86-235p
CVSS 4.0
8.2 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weakness
CWE-409
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2026-43970 8.2

Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion. cow_spdy:inflate/2 in cowlib passes peer-supplied compressed bytes directly to zlib:inflate/2 with no output size bound. The SPDY header compression dictionary (?ZDICT) is public, and zlib compresses long runs of repeated bytes at roughly 1024:1, so a few kilobytes of SPDY frame payload can decompress to gigabytes on the BEAM heap, OOM-killing the node. A single unauthenticated SPDY frame is sufficient to trigger the condition. The parsers for syn_stream, syn_reply, and headers frame types are all affected via cow_spdy:parse_headers/2. This issue affects cowlib from 0.1.0 before 2.16.1.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43970
CVSS 4.0
8.2 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
cowlib
Hex
0.1.0 up to 2.16.1
2.16.1
erlang-cowlib
Debian:12
All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-32.17.1-12.17.1-22.18.0-12.19.0-12.20.0-12.21.0-1
None known
erlang-cowlib
Debian:13
All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-32.17.1-12.17.1-22.18.0-12.19.0-12.20.0-12.21.0-1
None known
erlang-cowlib
Debian:14
before 2.17.1-1, plus listed versions
1.3.0-3
2.17.1-1
cowlib
Hex
0.1.0 up to 2.16.1, plus listed versions
1.0.01.0.11.0.21.1.01.2.0
Show 27 moreShow less
1.3.02.0.02.0.12.1.02.10.02.10.12.11.02.12.02.12.12.13.02.14.02.15.02.16.02.2.02.2.12.3.02.4.02.5.02.5.12.6.02.7.02.7.12.7.22.7.32.8.02.9.02.9.1
2.16.1
erlang-cowlib
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-1
None known
erlang-cowlib
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-2
None known
erlang-cowlib
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-3
None known
erlang-cowlib
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-3
None known
erlang-cowlib
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-3
None known
erlang-cowlib
Ubuntu:25.10
All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-3
None known
erlang-cowlib
Ubuntu:26.10
All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-3build12.19.0-1
None known
erlang-cowlib
Ubuntu:26.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-31.3.0-3build1
None known

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
first indexedCVE List, EUVD, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2026-43970 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 8.2) in Ninenines Cowlib, published May 13, 2026. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.51%, the 43rd percentile. Fixed in cowlib 2.16.1.

References

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