Vulnerability in Erlang Erlang\/inets

CVE-2026-23941

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 before OTP 28.4.1, OTP 27.3.4.9 and OTP 26.2.5.18, corresponding to inets from 5.10 before 9.6.1, 9.3.2.3 and 9.1.0.5.

Vulnerability class: HTTP Request Smuggling

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.4 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (36.8th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 37th percentile — 36.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-23941: held from 0.005 to 0.005.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: -0.001

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-23941?
CVE-2026-23941 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Erlang Erlang\/inets, classified under Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests (HTTP Request/Response Smuggling). CVSS score: 9.4/10. Published 2026-03-13.
How severe is CVE-2026-23941?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.4 out of 10.