[NPCmillionaire]

What

Fixes #954.

A h=/H= header option whose value lacks a Name:Value colon separator — e.g. a raw cookie string like H=PHPSESSID=abc; filterData=xyz; — parses to an empty value, which add_header() rejects. The caller then printed:

[ERROR] Out of memory for HTTP headers (H).

...which sends users chasing a memory problem that doesn't exist. This is exactly what the reporter (and follow-up commenters) hit.

Change

In parse_options(), detect the two malformed cases in both the h= and H= parsers:

• no : separator present, and
• empty header name or empty value

and emit an actionable error naming the offending option and the expected Name:Value format (noting that a literal colon in the value is escaped as \:). The out-of-memory message is now reserved for a genuine add_header() allocation failure.

Verification

Built locally and tested against the reproducing inputs:

• H=PHPSESSID=abc123; filterData=xyz; (no colon) → [ERROR] invalid header 'H=PHPSESSID=abc123; filterData=xyz;': expected format "Name:Value" (escape a literal colon in the value as \:)
• H=X-Test\: (empty value) → [ERROR] invalid header 'H=...': header name and value must both be non-empty (use "Name:Value")
• H=Cookie:PHPSESSID=abc123; security=low (valid) → still accepted; the Cookie header is sent to the server unchanged.

No change in behavior for well-formed headers.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Copilot]

🟢 Approval recommended

No active review issues are reported for the malformed HTTP-form header diagnostic update.

No open issues 🎉

What changed in this PR

This PR addresses #954 by making HTTP-form header parsing report malformed h=/H= options as format errors rather than misleading out-of-memory errors.

Changes:

• Adds checks for missing colon separators and empty header names or values, with guidance on the expected format.
• Updates allocation-failure messages and documents the diagnostic improvement in the changelog.

File	Description
hydra-http-form.c	Validates header options before adding them and reports specific format errors.
CHANGES	Records the malformed-header diagnostic fix for issue #954.

_{Review effort: Balanced}

[vanhauser-thc]

thanks