CVE-2008-1544: Microsoft Internet Explorer

High severity, CVSS 7.1. EPSS: 26.3% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

The setRequestHeader method of the XMLHttpRequest object in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01, 6, and 7 does not block dangerous HTTP request headers when certain 8-bit character sequences are appended to a header name, which allows remote attackers to (1) conduct HTTP request splitting and HTTP request smuggling attacks via an incorrect Content-Length header, (2) access arbitrary virtual hosts via a modified Host header, (3) bypass referrer restrictions via an incorrect Referer header, and (4) bypass the same-origin policy and obtain sensitive information via a crafted request header.

Affected products

• Microsoft Internet Explorer: version 5.01 only; version 6 only; version 7 only

Published 2008-03-28. Last modified 2026-06-16.