How severe is CVE-2026-7790?

No CVSS score has been assigned to CVE-2026-7790 yet. Review the advisory details and affected package list to assess your exposure.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2026-7790?

CVE-2026-7790 affects the following packages: cowlib (Hex). Ecosystems affected: Hex.

How do I fix CVE-2026-7790?

Update cowlib to 2.16.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-7790 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2026-7790 in my Hex dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cowlib, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2026-7790 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.

Is CVE-2026-7790 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2026-7790 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2026-7790?

CVE-2026-7790 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.4%, placing it in the 37th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2026-7790?

CVE-2026-7790 is classified as Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2026-7790 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2026-7790 was published on May 11, 2026 and was last updated on October 28, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

💧 Hex

Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2026-7790 — cowlib

Fix: ninenines/cowlib@a4b8039

CVE-2026-7790 is a Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in cowlib. A fix is available for cowlib — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Unbounded chunk-size hex digits in cowlib cause quadratic CPU and memory DoS

Also known asEEF-CVE-2026-7790GHSA-32p9-57cr-4x65

Published

May 11, 2026

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 6, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
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-2026-7790.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.4%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs37th percentile — riskier than 37% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

💧cowlib

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Hex packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in ninenines cowlib (cow_http_te module) allows Excessive Allocation.

The chunked transfer-encoding parser in cow_http_te accepts an unbounded number of hex digits in the chunk-size field. Each digit causes a bignum multiplication (Len * 16 + digit), so parsing N hex digits requires O(N²) CPU work and O(N) memory. Additionally, when input is drip-fed, the parser discards the accumulated length on each partial read and restarts from zero on resumption, raising the cost to O(N³). An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this by sending an HTTP/1.1 request with Transfer-Encoding: chunked and a very long chunk-size hex string to cause denial of service through CPU exhaustion and memory amplification.

This vulnerability is associated with program file src/cow_http_te.erl and program routines cow_http_te:stream_chunked/2, cow_http_te:chunked_len/4.

This issue affects cowlib: from 0.6.0 before 2.16.1.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
💧Hex	`cowlib`	≥ 0.6.0&&< 2.16.1	2.16.1`mix deps.update cowlib`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

cowlibninenines

≥ 0.6.0 && < 2.16.1

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cowlib, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update cowlib to 2.16.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-7790 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in ninenines cowlib (cow_http_te module) allows Excessive Allocation. The chunked transfer-encoding parser in cow_http_te accepts an unbounded number of hex digits in the chunk-size field. Each digit causes a bignum multiplication (Len * 16 + digit), so parsing N hex digits requires O(N²) CPU work and O(N) memory. Additionally, when input is drip-fed, the parser discards the accumulated length on each partial read and restarts from zero on resumption, raising the cost to O(N³). An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this by sending an HT

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2026-7790 in your dependencies?

Find it across Hex, including transitive dependencies.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works