CVE-2026-3419: Fastify's Missing End Anchor in "subtypeNameReg" Allows Malformed Content-Types to Pass Validation

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.3 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-03-06 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-185

Description

Fastify incorrectly accepts malformed `Content-Type` headers containing trailing characters after the subtype token, in violation of RFC 9110 §8.3.1(https://httpwg.org/specs/rfc9110.html#field.content-type). For example, a request sent with Content-Type: application/json garbage passes validation and is processed normally, rather than being rejected with 415 Unsupported Media Type. When regex-based content-type parsers are in use (a documented Fastify feature), the malformed value is matched against registered parsers using the full string including the trailing garbage. This means a request with an invalid content-type may be routed to and processed by a parser it should never have reached. Impact: An attacker can send requests with RFC-invalid Content-Type headers that bypass validity checks, reach content-type parser matching, and be processed by the server. Requests that should be rejected at the validation stage are instead handled as if the content-type were valid. Workarounds: Deploy a WAF rule to protect against this Fix: The fix is available starting with v5.8.1.

Affected products

fastify: from 5.7.2 before 5.8.1 — fixed in 5.8.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: fastify 5.8.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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