VYPR
Moderate severityNVD Advisory· Published Dec 21, 2020· Updated Aug 4, 2024

request smuggling in async-h1

CVE-2020-26281

Description

async-h1 is an asynchronous HTTP/1.1 parser for Rust (crates.io). There is a request smuggling vulnerability in async-h1 before version 2.3.0. This vulnerability affects any webserver that uses async-h1 behind a reverse proxy, including all such Tide applications. If the server does not read the body of a request which is longer than some buffer length, async-h1 will attempt to read a subsequent request from the body content starting at that offset into the body. One way to exploit this vulnerability would be for an adversary to craft a request such that the body contains a request that would not be noticed by a reverse proxy, allowing it to forge forwarded/x-forwarded headers. If an application trusted the authenticity of these headers, it could be misled by the smuggled request. Another potential concern with this vulnerability is that if a reverse proxy is sending multiple http clients' requests along the same keep-alive connection, it would be possible for the smuggled request to specify a long content and capture another user's request in its body. This content could be captured in a post request to an endpoint that allows the content to be subsequently retrieved by the adversary. This has been addressed in async-h1 2.3.0 and previous versions have been yanked.

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

async-h1 before 2.3.0 has a request smuggling vulnerability that allows an attacker to forge headers or capture other users' requests when the server does not fully read the body.

Root

Cause async-h1, an asynchronous HTTP/1.1 parser for Rust, fails to properly consume request bodies that exceed a buffer length. When the server does not read the entire body, async-h1 interprets subsequent bytes as a new request, enabling request smuggling [1][2].

Exploitation

An attacker can send a request with a body containing a smuggled request. A reverse proxy may not see the embedded request, allowing the attacker to forge forwarded headers like X-Forwarded-For [1][4]. Additionally, on shared keep-alive connections, a smuggled request with a large Content-Length can capture another client's request in its body, which could be exfiltrated via a POST endpoint [1][3].

Impact

This can lead to header manipulation, potentially bypassing access controls based on trusted headers, or stealing sensitive data from other users' requests. All Tide applications using async-h1 behind a reverse proxy are affected [2].

Mitigation

Fixed in async-h1 2.3.0, and all previous versions have been yanked. No workarounds are available, so upgrading is required [2][4].

AI Insight generated on May 21, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.

Affected packages

Versions sourced from the GitHub Security Advisory.

PackageAffected versionsPatched versions
async-h1crates.io
< 2.3.02.3.0

Affected products

2

Patches

0

No patches discovered yet.

Vulnerability mechanics

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References

5

News mentions

0

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