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                            CERT-Renater

                Note d'Information No. 2026/VULN689
_____________________________________________________________________

DATE                : 29/06/2026

HARDWARE PLATFORM(S): /

OPERATING SYSTEM(S): Systems running HAProxy Enterprise versions prior
                     to 1.0.0-308.1822, 2.8r1-341.1462, 3.0r1-360.1200,
                           3.2r1-376.966, 3.3r1-375.672,
                     HAProxy Community Edition All supported branches,
                   HAProxy ALOHA versions prior to 14.5.46, 15.5.45,
                                16.5.39, 17.5.29, 18.0.8.
 
=====================================================================
https://www.haproxy.com/blog/june-2026-cve-2026-55204-null-pointer-dereference-in-haproxys-hpack-header-handling
_____________________________________________________________________

June 2026 – CVE-2026-55204: null pointer dereference in HAProxy's
HPACK header handling 

On June 18, 2026, CVE-2026-55204 was published, reported by security
researcher Tristan Madani and filed through a third-party CNA. It
describes a null pointer dereference in HAProxy's HPACK (HTTP/2 header
compression) handling: the hpack_dht_insert() function in
src/hpack-tbl.c does not check the return value of hpack_dht_defrag()
when the memory pool is exhausted, which can cause a process to crash
if other OOM or other system stability issues do not already cause the
instance to crash. That could result in a denial-of-service attack.

The report carries a CVSS v4.0 score of 8.7 (High). We want to be
transparent about that score and equally clear about our assessment:
the real-world risk is low. This is not realistically exploitable.

The issue was observed only on a custom-modified HAProxy build, and
neither our team nor the reporter was able to reproduce it on a
standard build. There is no known proof-of-concept and no evidence
of exploitation in the wild. The CVSS vector also reflects an
availability-only impact (a process crash) with no impact to
confidentiality or integrity.

The reason comes down to how modern systems manage memory. Triggering
this bug requires an allocation to return NULL under memory
exhaustion. Still, on a normally configured Linux system, the
kernel's out-of-memory (OOM) killer terminates a memory-starved
process before that can happen. Returning NULL in this path generally
requires a non-default memory-overcommit configuration that very
few deployments use. In practice, a server would already be in a
critical low-memory state before this code path could be reached.

We committed a fix regardless, out of respect for the report and to
keep our codebase clean, and we are rolling it out through our normal
release process rather than as an emergency patch. We recommend
customers update to a fixed version once it is available for their
product. In the meantime, the most effective safeguard is the one we
recommend for any production deployment: size HAProxy to the memory
available on its host so the process does not approach
Out-of-Memory (OOM) conditions.


Vulnerability details

    CVE Identifier: CVE-2026-55204

    CVSS v4.0 Score: 8.7 (High) — base score assigned by the CNA (VulnCheck)

        Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

        For reference, the equivalent CVSS v3.1 base score is 7.5 (High): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

    Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

    Affected component: HAProxy HPACK dynamic header table — hpack_dht_insert()
in src/hpack-tbl.c

    Reported by: Tristan Madani

    Published: June 18, 2026 (CVE source: VulnCheck)

    Description:

        The issue was first reported to HAProxy Community Edition as a
minor bug, demonstrated using a custom version of HAProxy.

        hpack_dht_insert() does not validate the return value of
hpack_dht_defrag() when the memory pool is exhausted. HPACK dynamic
table insertions under memory pressure can dereference a null pointer,
crashing HAProxy worker processes and causing a denial-of-service.

        HAProxy Technologies was unable to reproduce the bug with a
standard version of HAProxy, and has no evidence of exploitation.
CISA's automated SSVC assessment also records exploitation status
as "none."

        Because the trigger is memory-pool exhaustion, deployments
with insufficient memory (reaching OOM or similar states) are most
relevant to this issue.


HAProxy's assessment

Based on our analysis, we do not consider this a meaningful avenue
for attacking or weakening HAProxy services. A rolling release is
typical for HAProxy Enterprise patches addressing low-risk issues:
fixes flow continuously from HAProxy Community Edition and are
picked up for upcoming HAProxy Enterprise releases and backports. 

We are publishing this advisory because a CVE with a high CVSS
score has been filed, and we want customers to have the full picture
(both the score and our assessment) so they can make an informed
decision about when to update.


Affected versions and remediation

This issue is present across currently supported versions of
HAProxy — the CVE record cites all releases up to and including
3.4.0, so it is not limited to the latest branch. Because the
affected code is part of the core HTTP/2 engine, products built
on HAProxy (HAProxy Community Edition, HAProxy Enterprise, and
HAProxy ALOHA) should be assumed in scope. The fix is committed
upstream in commit 9a6d1fe.

At the time of writing, the fix has not yet been included in a
tagged HAProxy Community Edition release — it is available in
source for anyone who wishes to compile it themselves — and
HAProxy Enterprise packages and builds are being rebuilt now.
The HAProxy Community Edition team is targeting a tagged release
in its next release series

The issue is fixed in HAProxy Enterprise after the following builds:

Product              Branch              Fixed after build

HAProxy Enterprise   hapee-2.6r1         1.0.0-308.1822

HAProxy Enterprise   hapee-2.8r1         2.8r1-341.1462

HAProxy Enterprise   hapee-3.0r1         3.0r1-360.1200

HAProxy Enterprise   hapee-3.2r1         3.2r1-376.966

HAProxy Enterprise   hapee-3.3r1         3.3r1-375.672

HAProxy Community Edition  All supported branches   Pending tagged
                                         release (committed upstream)

HAProxy ALOHA       14.5                 14.5.46

HAProxy ALOHA       15.5                 15.5.45 

HAProxy ALOHA       16.5                 16.5.39

HAProxy ALOHA       17.5                 17.5.29

HAProxy ALOHA       18.0                 18.0.8


The permanent fix is delivered by updating to a patched version.
In the meantime, the most effective safeguard is the one we
recommend for any production deployment: size HAProxy to the
memory available on its host so the process does not approach
Out-of-Memory conditions. A system kept within healthy memory
limits will not reach the state required to trigger this issue.


Upgrade instructions

Once fixed images are available, users of affected products should
update by pulling the latest version for their respective release
track. Instructions are linked below (customer login required):

    Upgrade HAProxy Enterprise

    Upgrade HAProxy Enterprise with HAProxy Fusion

    Upgrade HAProxy ALOHA

    HAProxy Community Edition: update to the fixed tagged release
once published, or build from source.


Support

If you are an HAProxy customer with questions about this advisory
or about upgrading to the latest version, please contact our
support team.

=========================================================
+ CERT-RENATER        |    tel : 01-53-94-20-44         +
+ 23/25 Rue Daviel    |    fax : 01-53-94-20-41         +
+ 75013 Paris         |   email:cert@support.renater.fr +
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