CVE-2022-42916
Plain English Summary
AI-powered analysis for quick understanding
This vulnerability allows an attacker to trick curl into using an insecure HTTP connection instead of the intended secure HTTPS connection by manipulating the URL with special characters. This can happen when the URL includes international domain names that get converted to ASCII, making it possible for the attacker to bypass security checks designed to enforce HTTPS.
Technical Description
In curl before 7.86.0, the HSTS check could be bypassed to trick it into staying with HTTP. Using its HSTS support, curl can be instructed to use HTTPS directly (instead of using an insecure cleartext HTTP step) even when HTTP is provided in the URL. This mechanism could be bypassed if the host name in the given URL uses IDN characters that get replaced with ASCII counterparts as part of the IDN conversion, e.g., using the character UTF-8 U+3002 (IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP) instead of the common ASCII full stop of U+002E (.). The earliest affected version is 7.77.0 2021-05-26.
CVSS Vector Analysis
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NExploit Resources
Search for proof-of-concept code and exploit modules
Official References
Quick Information
Published
Oct 29, 2022
over 3 years ago
Last Modified
Feb 13, 2026
about 2 months ago
Vendor
haxx
Product
curl
Related Vulnerabilities
This vulnerability allows an attacker to potentially execute arbitrary code on a system using curl when making a second SMB request to the same host, due to the software mistakenly using memory that has already been freed. To exploit this, the attacker must be able to send multiple SMB requests to the same server, which could happen in certain network configurations.
This vulnerability allows an attacker to potentially gain access to sensitive information by reusing an existing HTTP proxy connection, even if the new request uses different login credentials. This issue occurs when the curl tool fails to establish a separate connection for requests that require different authentication, which could lead to unauthorized data exposure if an attacker can control the proxy or its traffic.
This vulnerability allows an attacker to potentially capture an OAuth2 bearer token when a user is redirected from one website to another, exposing sensitive information. This can happen if the second website has credentials stored in the user's .netrc file, which curl mistakenly sends along with the token.
This vulnerability allows an attacker to potentially access sensitive information by reusing an existing connection that was authenticated with different user credentials, leading to unauthorized actions. This can happen if an application makes multiple requests to the same server using Negotiate authentication, where the first request is authenticated with one user's credentials and the second request mistakenly uses that same connection, thinking it's authenticated with a different user's credentials.
This vulnerability allows an attacker to potentially send incorrect data during an HTTP POST request if the same connection handle was previously used for a PUT request, which could lead to unexpected application behavior. It mainly affects applications that reuse connection handles without properly resetting them, making it important for developers to be cautious when switching between different types of requests.