CVE-2023-23914

HSTS ignored on multiple requests

Project curl Security Advisory, February 15 2023 - Permalink

VULNERABILITY

curl's HSTS functionality fail when multiple URLs are requested serially.

Using its HSTS support, curl can be instructed to use HTTPS instead of using an insecure clear-text HTTP step even when HTTP is provided in the URL. This HSTS mechanism would however surprisingly be ignored by subsequent transfers when done on the same command line because the state would not be properly carried on.

Reproducible like this:

curl --hsts "" https://curl.se http://curl.se

The first URL returns HSTS information that the second URL fails to take advantage of.

INFO

This is a curl command line issue and does not affect libcurl.

This flaw was introduced in commit 7385610d0c7, which was shipped enabled by default from commit d71ff2b9db566b3f in curl 7.77.0.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the name CVE-2023-23914 to this issue.

CWE-319: Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information

Severity: Low

AFFECTED VERSIONS

• Affected versions: curl 7.77.0 to and including 7.87.0
• Not affected versions: curl < 7.77.0 and curl >= 7.88.0
• Introduced-in: https://github.com/curl/curl/commit/7385610d0c7

curl is used by many applications, but not always advertised as such!

SOLUTION

7.88.0 shares the HSTS state properly between transfers.

• Fixed-in: https://github.com/curl/curl/commit/076a2f629119222a

RECOMMENDATIONS

A - Upgrade curl to version 7.88.0

B - Apply the patch to your local version

C - Specify all URLs with HTTPS:// and not HTTP://

TIMELINE

This issue was reported to the curl project on December 21, 2022. We contacted distros@openwall on February 7, 2022.

curl 7.88.0 was released on February 15 2023, coordinated with the publication of this advisory.

CREDITS

• Reported-by: Harry Sintonen
• Patched-by: Daniel Stenberg

Thanks a lot!