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CVE-2025-66471 High

urllib3 streaming API improperly handles highly compressed data

### Impact urllib3's [streaming API](https://urllib3.readthedocs.io/en/2.5.0/advanced-usage.html#streaming-and-i-o) 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; CWE-409) on the client side, even if the application only requested a small chunk of data. ### Affected usages Applications and libraries using urllib3 version 2.5.0 and earlier to stream large compressed responses or content from untrusted sources. `stream()`, `read(amt=256)`, `read1(amt=256)`, `read_chunked(amt=256)`, `readinto(b)` are examples of `urllib3.HTTPResponse` method calls using the affected logic unless decoding is disabled explicitly. ### Remediation Upgrade to at least urllib3 v2.6.0 in which the library avoids decompressing data that exceeds the requested amount. If your environment contains a package facilitating the Brotli encoding, upgrade to at least Brotli 1.2.0 or brotlicffi 1.2.0.0 too. These versions are enforced by the `urllib3[brotli]` extra in the patched versions of urllib3. ### Credits The issue was reported by @Cycloctane. Supplemental information was provided by @stamparm during a security audit performed by [7ASecurity](https://7asecurity.com/) and facilitated by [OSTIF](https://ostif.org/).

Exploit probability 0.7%
Published July 7, 2026
Required by Not available
Last source change July 7, 2026

02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE

Affected packages

Unknown Unknown
PyPI urllib3

98 explicit affected versions

PyPI urllib3

98 explicit affected versions

03 / CONNECTIONS

Connected vulnerabilities

04 / EVIDENCE

Source records

Open Source Vulnerabilities GHSA-2xpw-w6gg-jr37

### Impact urllib3's [streaming API](https://urllib3.readthedocs.io/en/2.5.0/advanced-usage.html#streaming-and-i-o) 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; CWE-409) on the client side, even if the application only requested a small chunk of data. ### Affected usages Applications and libraries using urllib3 version 2.5.0 and earlier to stream large compressed responses or content from untrusted sources. `stream()`, `read(amt=256)`, `read1(amt=256)`, `read_chunked(amt=256)`, `readinto(b)` are examples of `urllib3.HTTPResponse` method calls using the affected logic unless decoding is disabled explicitly. ### Remediation Upgrade to at least urllib3 v2.6.0 in which the library avoids decompressing data that exceeds the requested amount. If your environment contains a package facilitating the Brotli encoding, upgrade to at least Brotli 1.2.0 or brotlicffi 1.2.0.0 too. These versions are enforced by the `urllib3[brotli]` extra in the patched versions of urllib3. ### Credits The issue was reported by @Cycloctane. Supplemental information was provided by @stamparm during a security audit performed by [7ASecurity](https://7asecurity.com/) and facilitated by [OSTIF](https://ostif.org/).

View original source
Open Source Vulnerabilities PYSEC-2026-1994

### Impact urllib3's [streaming API](https://urllib3.readthedocs.io/en/2.5.0/advanced-usage.html#streaming-and-i-o) 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; CWE-409) on the client side, even if the application only requested a small chunk of data. ### Affected usages Applications and libraries using urllib3 version 2.5.0 and earlier to stream large compressed responses or content from untrusted sources. `stream()`, `read(amt=256)`, `read1(amt=256)`, `read_chunked(amt=256)`, `readinto(b)` are examples of `urllib3.HTTPResponse` method calls using the affected logic unless decoding is disabled explicitly. ### Remediation Upgrade to at least urllib3 v2.6.0 in which the library avoids decompressing data that exceeds the requested amount. If your environment contains a package facilitating the Brotli encoding, upgrade to at least Brotli 1.2.0 or brotlicffi 1.2.0.0 too. These versions are enforced by the `urllib3[brotli]` extra in the patched versions of urllib3. ### Credits The issue was reported by @Cycloctane. Supplemental information was provided by @stamparm during a security audit performed by [7ASecurity](https://7asecurity.com/) and facilitated by [OSTIF](https://ostif.org/).

View original source
Open Source Vulnerabilities CVE-2025-66471

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.

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05 / REFERENCES

Further evidence