GHSA-w7hm-hmxv-pvhf is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) vulnerability in hpack. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
HPACK decoder panics on invalid input
Real-World Exposure
hpackReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Due to insufficient checking of input data, decoding certain data sequences can lead to Decoder::decode panicking rather than returning an error.
Example code that triggers this vulnerability looks like this:
use hpack::Decoder;
pub fn main() {
let input = &[0x3f];
let mut decoder = Decoder::new();
let _ = decoder.decode(input);
}
hpack is unmaintained. A crate with the panics fixed has been published as hpack-patched.
Also consider using fluke-hpack or httlib-huffman as an alternative.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | hpack | all versions | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for hpack, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of hpack has shipped for GHSA-w7hm-hmxv-pvhf yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
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 GHSA-w7hm-hmxv-pvhf can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-w7hm-hmxv-pvhf. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-w7hm-hmxv-pvhf in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-w7hm-hmxv-pvhf across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.