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Quadratic DoS via Repeated Header Coalescing

High
bdarnell published GHSA-c98p-7wgm-6p64 Dec 11, 2025

Package

pip tornado (pip)

Affected versions

<6.5.3

Patched versions

6.5.3

Description

Summary

The HTTPHeaders.add method in Tornado accumulates values using string concatenation when the same header name is repeated. Due to Python string immutability, each concatenation copies the entire string, resulting in O(n²) time complexity.

Given Tornado's single event loop architecture, a single maliciously crafted HTTP request can block the server's event loop for an extended period, causing a Denial of Service (DoS).

Severity: High if max_header_size has been increased from its default, low if it has its default value of 64KB.

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVE ID

CVE-2025-67725

Weaknesses

No CWEs

Credits