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.

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Solution

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Workaround

Sanitize user-controlled values before passing them to cow_sse:event/1: reject or strip any value containing \r or \n characters in the id, event, data, and comment fields. Alternatively, ensure that all SSE field values are derived exclusively from trusted, application-controlled data rather than user input.

History

Mon, 11 May 2026 19:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Mon, 11 May 2026 18:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
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.
Title CR Injection in SSE Encoder Enables Event Splitting via cow_sse:event/1
First Time appeared Ninenines
Ninenines cowlib
Weaknesses CWE-93
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:ninenines:cowlib:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Ninenines
Ninenines cowlib
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 6.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N'}


Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: EEF

Published:

Updated: 2026-05-11T18:57:38.074Z

Reserved: 2026-05-04T18:23:25.573Z

Link: CVE-2026-43968

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-05-11T18:57:24.423Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-05-11T19:16:25.100

Modified: 2026-05-11T19:16:25.100

Link: CVE-2026-43968

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-05-11T19:30:06Z

Weaknesses