CVE-2026-18149: undici's retry handler can leave an already-exposed response body pending forever.

undici's retry handler can leave an already-exposed response body pending forever.

undici's retry handler can leave an already-exposed response body pending forever. When a server returns a successful response that declares a Content-Length, sends only part of the body, and closes the connection, the retry handler retries the request. If the retry returns a non-retryable status such as 400, the handler forwards that new response downstream and replaces its internal response stream, but the original response body that the application still holds is never ended or destroyed. As a result calls that read that body never settle, and the configured body timeout does not fire because its timer is tied to the connection parser rather than the orphaned body. An attacker-controlled server can trigger this with two short responses without keeping a connection open, and repeated requests accumulate pending promises and streams that can exhaust application concurrency or memory. This affects undici versions from 7.11.0 up to 7.29.1 and from 8.0.0 up to 8.10.2. Users should upgrade to undici 7.29.1 or 8.10.2.

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by ce714d77-add3-4f53-aff5-83d477b104bb

What it means for a small business

If your business uses undici, install the vendor's update. If you're not sure whether you use it, ask whoever manages your computers.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.48%, higher than 41% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored October 29, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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