Vulnerability · Published Jul 29, 2026 · Assigned by openjs
CVE-2026-16728undici vulnerable to downstream response desynchronization via retry interceptor
Medium 4.8
In plain English
A medium-severity security flaw in undici from undici. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 21% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
undici's retry interceptor can deliver a response whose body length does not match the Content-Length header exposed to the application after a retry or resume of a partial response. In undici before 6.28.0, from 7.0.0 up to before 7.29.0, and from 8.0.0 up to before 8.9.0, a malicious or faulty upstream can return a partial response with a mismatched framing header, close the socket early, and have the retry interceptor assemble a body of a different length while the original Content-Length stays attached. Applications that use the retry interceptor and forward upstream headers and bodies downstream, such as proxies or gateways, may then emit an invalid HTTP response with a stale Content-Length, leading to downstream response desynchronization, connection hangs, or response corruption. Exploitation requires the retry interceptor enabled, an upstream returning a mismatched partial response, and a downstream forwarder that does not remove or recalculate Content-Length. The issue is fixed in undici 6.28.0, 7.29.0, and 8.9.0.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | node-undici | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-16728 |
| Debian:13 | node-undici | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-16728 |
| Debian:14 | node-undici | 8.9.0+dfsg+~cs3.2.0-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-16728 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | node-undici | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-16728 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | node-undici | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-16728 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | node-undici | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-16728 |
| npm | undici | 8.9.0 | GHSA-8xcm-r25x-g524 |
| npm | undici | 7.29.0 | GHSA-8xcm-r25x-g524 |
| npm | undici | 6.28.0 | GHSA-8xcm-r25x-g524 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-444 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N