GHSA-c98p-7wgm-6p64
Tornado: Quadratic DoS via Repeated Header Coalescing
Packages
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
## Summary
The `HTTPHeaders.add` method in Tornado accumulates values using string concatenation when the same header name is repeated. Due to Python string immutability, each concatenation copies the entire string, resulting in O(n²) time complexity.
Given Tornado's single event loop architecture, a single maliciously crafted HTTP request can block the server's event loop for an extended period, causing a Denial of Service (DoS).
**Severity:** **High** if `max_header_size` has been increased from its default, **low** if it has its default value of 64KB.
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/security/advisories/GHSA-c98p-7wgm-6p64
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-67725
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/commit/771472cfdaeebc0d89a9cc46e249f8891a6b29cd
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/tornado/PYSEC-2025-266.yaml
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado
- https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/releases/tag/v6.5.3