This email proposes upgrading the llhttp package in EPEL9 from 6.0.10 to 8.1.1, which would break the ABI and bump the SONAME version, under the EPEL Incompatible Upgrades Policy[1].
The llhttp package is a C library (transpiled from TypeScript) that provides the low-level HTTP support for NodeJS and for python-aiohttp. Currently, only python-aiohttp depends on the llhttp package in EPEL9.
Versions of llhttp prior to 8.1.1 are affected by CVE-2023-30589[2], an HTTP request smuggling vulnerability rated 7.7 HIGH in CVSS v3 and rated Moderate by Red Hat. The GitHub advisory for llhttp is GHSA-cggh-pq45-6h9x[3]; the advisory for python-aiohttp is GHSA-45c4-8wx5-qw6w[4]. Upstream for python-aiohttp fixed this by updating llhttp (which they bundle, but we unbundle) in release 3.8.5.
I am not comfortable attempting to backport the fix to an older release of llhttp. My preferred solution would be to update llhttp to 8.1.1[5] and (in the same side tag) update python-aiohttp to 3.8.5[6]. The ABI break in llhttp would only affect python-aiohttp; the python-aiohttp update itself is compatible (by upstream intent, and verified in COPR[7]); and a number of packages that depend on python-aiohttp would benefit from the fix.
If this exception request is not approved, my fallback plan is to propose rebuilding python-aiohttp in EPEL9 with AIOHTTP_NO_EXTENSIONS=1, which would convert it to a pure-Python package. This is a documented mitigation, but comes with potentially serious performance regressions, again affecting a number of dependent packages. The llhttp package would become a leaf package and would remain unpatched.
The same incompatible update was approved by FESCo for Fedora 37[8].
The purpose of this email is to document and explain the proposed update, to begin the minimum one-week discussion period mandated by the EPEL Incompatible Upgrades Policy, and to request that the update be added to the agenda for an upcoming EPEL meeting.
[1] https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/epel/epel-policy-incompatible-upgrades/...
[2] https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-30589
[3] https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cggh-pq45-6h9x
[4] https://github.com/aio-libs/aiohttp/security/advisories/GHSA-45c4-8wx5-qw6w
[5] https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/llhttp/pull-request/14
[6] https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/python-aiohttp/pull-request/26
[7] https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/music/aiohttp-epel9/packages/