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urllib3 Streaming API improperly handles highly compressed data

Type: advisorySources: OSV

urllib3 is a user-friendly HTTP client library for Python. Starting in version 1.0 and prior to 2.6.0, the Streaming API improperly handles highly compressed data. urllib3's streaming API is designed for the efficient handling of large HTTP responses by reading the content in chunks, rather than loading the entire response body into memory at once. When streaming a compressed response, urllib3 can perform decoding or decompression based on the HTTP Content-Encoding header (e.g., gzip, deflate, br, or zstd). The library must read compressed data from the network and decompress it until the requested chunk size is met. Any resulting decompressed data that exceeds the requested amount is held in an internal buffer for the next read operation. The decompression logic could cause urllib3 to fully decode a small amount of highly compressed data in a single operation. This can result in excessive resource consumption (high CPU usage and massive memory allocation for the decompressed data.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2025-66471
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
7 Nov 2026, 15:04 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

urllib3 Streaming API improperly handles highly compressed data

core-osv · Original source

Published 5 Dec 2025, 16:06 UTC

urllib3 is a user-friendly HTTP client library for Python. Starting in version 1.0 and prior to 2.6.0, the Streaming API improperly handles highly compressed data. urllib3's streaming API is designed for the efficient handling of large HTTP responses by reading the content in chunks, rather than loading the entire response body into memory at once. When streaming a compressed response, urllib3 can perform decoding or decompression based on the HTTP Content-Encoding header (e.g., gzip, deflate, br, or zstd). The library must read compressed data from the network and decompress it until the requested chunk size is met. Any resulting decompressed data that exceeds the requested amount is held in an internal buffer for the next read operation. The decompression logic could cause urllib3 to fully decode a small amount of highly compressed data in a single operation. This can result in excessive resource consumption (high CPU usage and massive memory allocation for the decompressed data.

osv:CVE-2025-66471
Complete source record
{
  "id": "fc79e91646a2685f04011d58dde9160b6b933b0b1915c1f350ef73613edbad36",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-66471",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "urllib3 Streaming API improperly handles highly compressed data",
    "summary": "urllib3 is a user-friendly HTTP client library for Python. Starting in version 1.0 and prior to 2.6.0, the Streaming API improperly handles highly compressed data. urllib3's streaming API is designed for the efficient handling of large HTTP responses by reading the content in chunks, rather than loading the entire response body into memory at once. When streaming a compressed response, urllib3 can perform decoding or decompression based on the HTTP Content-Encoding header (e.g., gzip, deflate, br, or zstd). The library must read compressed data from the network and decompress it until the requested chunk size is met. Any resulting decompressed data that exceeds the requested amount is held in an internal buffer for the next read operation. The decompression logic could cause urllib3 to fully decode a small amount of highly compressed data in a single operation. This can result in excessive resource consumption (high CPU usage and massive memory allocation for the decompressed data.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2025-66471",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2025-66471",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2025-66471",
        "GHSA-2xpw-w6gg-jr37",
        "PYSEC-2026-1994"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V4",
          "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "04c6c18b6630386334fb010079a3ae3cdc59eea2"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "720f484b605f18887a48eef448d0084e2b76902d"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "c19571de34c47de3a766541b041637ba5f716ed7"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:python:urllib3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "1.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "2.6.0"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "c19571de34c47de3a766541b041637ba5f716ed7"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2025-66471.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:51.260057381Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/66xxx/CVE-2025-66471.json",
        "https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/security/advisories/GHSA-2xpw-w6gg-jr37",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-66471",
        "https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/commit/c19571de34c47de3a766541b041637ba5f716ed7"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-409"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/66xxx/CVE-2025-66471.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2025-66471",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 519710,
  "published_at": "2025-12-05T16:06:08.531+00:00"
}