CVE-2026-56813 PUBLISHED

Cookie attribute injection in Plug.Conn.Cookies.encode/2

Assigner: EEF
Reserved: 23.06.2026 Published: 10.07.2026 Updated: 10.07.2026

Improper Neutralization of Parameter/Argument Delimiters vulnerability in elixir-plug plug allows an attacker to inject or override HTTP cookie attributes.

The Plug.Conn.Cookies.encode/2 function in lib/plug/conn/cookies.ex builds the Set-Cookie response header by interpolating the cookie value and its path, domain, same_site, and extra attributes directly into the header without neutralizing the ';' delimiter that separates cookie attributes.

An application that places attacker-controlled data into a cookie value or attribute (for example via Plug.Conn.put_resp_cookie/4 when reflecting a username or preference) lets an attacker inject a ';' to append or override cookie attributes (such as Domain and Path scope, or dropping the Secure and HttpOnly flags), enabling cookie tossing and session fixation. Carriage return, line feed, and null bytes are rejected by Plug.Conn header validation, so HTTP response splitting is not possible, but attribute injection through ';' is not prevented.

This issue affects plug: from 0.1.0 before 1.16.6, from 1.17.0 before 1.17.4, from 1.18.0 before 1.18.5, from 1.19.0 before 1.19.5, from 1.20.0 before 1.20.3.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N
CVSS Score: 2.1

Product Status

Vendor elixir-plug
Product plug
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0.1.0 to 1.16.6 (excl.)
  • affected from 1.17.0 to 1.17.4 (excl.)
  • affected from 1.18.0 to 1.18.5 (excl.)
  • affected from 1.19.0 to 1.19.5 (excl.)
  • affected from 1.20.0 to 1.20.3 (excl.)
Vendor elixir-plug
Product plug
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from f26876aa67aaeb38e616638aa3efbcc2fe2906a5 to * (excl.)

Workarounds

Validate or reject the ';' delimiter in any untrusted data before passing it as a cookie value or attribute to Plug.Conn.put_resp_cookie/4 or Plug.Conn.Cookies.encode/2. Carriage return, line feed, and null bytes are already rejected by Plug.Conn header validation.

Credits

  • Peter Ullrich finder
  • José Valim remediation developer
  • Jonatan Männchen analyst

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-141 Improper Neutralization of Parameter/Argument Delimiters CWE

Impacts

  • CAPEC-61 Session Fixation