Description
Polipo 1.0.4, and possibly other versions, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a request with a Cache-Control header that lacks a value for the max-age field, which triggers a segmentation fault in the httpParseHeaders function in http_parse.c, and possibly other unspecified vectors.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 5.0 | polipo | 1.0.4-1+lenny1 | DSA-2002-1 |
Public exploits
Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.
Exploit-DB 1
- Polipo 1.0.4 - Remote Memory Corruption (PoC) EDB-10338 · dos · Dec 7, 2009 · verified
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
Advisories 1
- DSA-2002-1 polipo - denial of service Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
References
- 37463 vdb-entry
- http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.bugs.dist/browse_thread/thread/dca6877a8117f0df
- 38647 third-party-advisory
- 37607 third-party-advisory
- DSA-2002 vendor-advisory
- http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=547047