CVE-2026-43968
CR Injection in SSE Encoder Enables Event Splitting via cow_sse:event/1
Record summary
CVE-2026-43968 has a selected CVSS score of 6.3 (medium).
Description
Improper Neutralization of CRLF Sequences ('CRLF Injection') vulnerability in ninenines cowlib allows SSE event splitting and injection via unvalidated field values. cow_sse:event/1 in cowlib guards the id and event fields against \n but not against bare \r, and the internal prefix_lines/2 function used for data and comment fields splits only on \n. Because the SSE specification requires decoders to treat \r\n, \r, and \n as equivalent line terminators, an attacker who controls any of these fields can inject additional SSE lines and forge a complete event with an arbitrary event type and data payload on the receiving end. In typical deployments where browser EventSource clients or other SSE consumers dispatch on event.type and render event.data, this enables event splitting, client-side logic manipulation, and stored-XSS-equivalent behaviour when event data is inserted into the DOM. This issue affects cowlib from 2.6.0 before 2.16.1.
Exploitation context
CISA SSVC decision
CISA Coordinator · SSVC 2.0.3 · Evaluated May 11, 2026 · Source: CVE List
Affected products and versions
3| Product | Source | Version range | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Default status: unaffected | CVE List | 2.6.0 to < 2.16.1 | affected |
Default status: unaffected | CVE List | 93b2b897cde238506c803faad4d1602d79dba7c9 to < 6165fc40efa159ba1cceee7e7981e790acba5d9c | affected |
cowlibBrowse Hex / cowlib | GitHub Advisory | 2.6.0 to < 2.16.1 · Fixed in 2.16.1 | affected |