Medium

Zapros has an Unbounded Content-Encoding decompression chain that allows denial of service

  • Disclosed: 23.09.2026
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 15:18

Impact

Who is impacted:

  • Any application using Zapros to make HTTP requests to untrusted servers
  • Applications that follow redirects to attacker-controlled hosts

Attack vector:

  • A malicious HTTP server returns a response with many chained content encodings. When the client attempts to decode, it creates a deeply nested decompression chain consuming excessive resources.

Patches

Fixed in version 0.14.0.

The fix adds a hardcoded limit of 5 Content-Encoding layers. Responses exceeding this limit raise DecodingError.

Workarounds

Add middleware that checks for a malicious Content-Encoding header.

python
from typing import cast

from zapros import (
    AsyncBaseHandler,
    AsyncBaseMiddleware,
    BaseHandler,
    BaseMiddleware,
    Client,
    DecodingError,
    Request,
    Response,
)

MAX_DECODE_LAYERS = 5


class ContentEncodingCheckMiddleware(BaseMiddleware, AsyncBaseMiddleware):
    def __init__(
        self,
        next_handler: BaseHandler | AsyncBaseHandler,
        *,
        max_layers: int = MAX_DECODE_LAYERS,
    ) -> None:
        self.next = cast(BaseHandler, next_handler)
        self.async_next = cast(AsyncBaseHandler, next_handler)
        self._max_layers = max_layers

    def _check(self, response: Response) -> None:
        encoding_header = response.headers.get("Content-Encoding")
        if not encoding_header:
            return

        layers = [enc.strip().lower() for enc in encoding_header.split(",") if enc.strip()]
        if len(layers) > self._max_layers:
            raise DecodingError(f"Too many Content-Encoding layers ({len(layers)}), maximum is {self._max_layers}")

    def handle(self, request: Request) -> Response:
        response = self.next.handle(request)
        self._check(response)
        return response

    async def ahandle(self, request: Request) -> Response:
        response = await self.async_next.ahandle(request)
        self._check(response)
        return response


with Client().wrap_with_middleware(lambda next: ContentEncodingCheckMiddleware(next)) as client:
    ...

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Python (PyPI) zapros < 0.14.0 0.14.0

References

CVSS score -
CVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-770
Platform
Python (PyPI)
Package
zapros
Disclosed
23.09.2026
Updated
11.10.2026 15:18

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2026-4181 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-5vjj-2r48-q622 - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: zapros

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Python (PyPI)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

Total entries
2
First → latest
09.2026 09.2026
Without a fix
0
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • High 1
  • Medium 1

Disclosures per year

  1. 2026: 2
  1. Zapros has an Unbounded Content-Encoding decompression chain that allows denial of service this entry
    Medium CVE-2026-61541 < 0.14.0 0.14.0

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