CVE-2022-30115
HSTS bypass via trailing dot
Project curl Security Advisory, May 11 2022 - Permalink
VULNERABILITY
curl's HSTS check could be bypassed to trick it to keep using HTTP.
Using its HSTS support, curl can be instructed to use HTTPS directly instead of using an insecure clear-text HTTP step even when HTTP is provided in the URL. This mechanism could be bypassed if the hostname in the given URL used a trailing dot while not using one when it built the HSTS cache. Or the other way around - by having the trailing dot in the HSTS cache and not using the trailing dot in the URL.
Since trailing dots in hostnames are somewhat special, many sites work equally fine with or without a trailing dot present.
INFO
This flaw was introduced in commit b27ad8e1d3e68e, shipped in curl 7.82.0 when the treatment of trailing dot hostnames was changed.
Similar issues have been raised in the past for Firefox and for Chrome.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the name CVE-2022-30115 to this issue.
CWE-319: Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information
Severity: Medium
AFFECTED VERSIONS
- Affected versions: curl 7.82.0 to and including 7.83.0
- Not affected versions: curl < 7.82.0 and curl >= 7.83.1
- Introduced-in: https://github.com/curl/curl/commit/b27ad8e1d3e68e
libcurl is used by many applications, but not always advertised as such!
SOLUTION
RECOMMENDATIONS
A - Upgrade curl to version 7.83.1
B - Apply the patch to your local version
C - Stick to always using HTTPS:// in URLs
TIMELINE
This issue was reported to the curl project on May 3, 2022. We contacted distros@openwall on May 5.
libcurl 7.83.1 was released on May 11 2022, coordinated with the publication of this advisory.
CREDITS
- Reported-by: Axel Chong
- Patched-by: Daniel Stenberg
Thanks a lot!