CVE-2026-71849 is a low-severity (CVSS 3.7) Information Exposure vulnerability in hono. A fix is available for hono — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Hono: Proxy Helper does not remove response headers listed in the `Connection` header
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-71849.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-71849 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
hononpmDescription
Summary
The Proxy Helper (hono/proxy) does not remove response headers named by the origin's Connection header. Headers that the origin marked as connection-scoped are therefore forwarded to clients.
Details
Per RFC 9110 Section 7.6.1, an intermediary must remove the header fields listed in a message's Connection header field before forwarding the message, in addition to the well-known hop-by-hop headers. The proxy() function removed the well-known hop-by-hop headers (including Connection itself) from origin responses, but did not remove the headers that the response's Connection header field designated as connection-scoped.
This issue arises when an application proxies responses from an origin that declares additional, non-standard headers as hop-by-hop via the Connection response header.
Impact
A client may receive response headers that the origin intended only for its immediate peer. This may lead to:
- Disclosure of connection-scoped or internal metadata contained in such headers
This issue affects applications that use the Proxy Helper (hono/proxy) to forward responses from origins that list custom header names in their Connection response header. Applications whose origins only use the standard hop-by-hop headers are not affected.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | hono | ≥ 4.7.0&&< 4.12.34 | 4.12.34npm install hono@4.12.34 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for hono, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update hono to 4.12.34 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-71849 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-71849 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-71849. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-71849 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-71849 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.