case insensitive password comparison
====================================

Project cURL Security Advisory, November 2, 2016 -
[Permalink](https://curl.haxx.se/docs/adv_20161102B.html)

VULNERABILITY
-------------

When re-using a connection, curl was doing case insensitive comparisons of
user name and password with the existing connections.

This means that if an unused connection with proper credentials exists for a
protocol that has connection-scoped credentials, an attacker can cause that
connection to be reused if s/he knows the case-insensitive version of the
correct password.

We are not aware of any exploit of this flaw.

INFO

----
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the name
CVE-2016-8616 to this issue.
AFFECTED VERSIONS
-----------------
This flaw exists in the following curl versions.
- Affected versions: curl 7.7 to and including 7.50.3
- Not affected versions: curl < 7.7 and curl >= 7.51.0
libcurl is used by many applications, but not always advertised as such!
THE SOLUTION
------------
In version 7.51.0, these functions will deny negative string lengths from
being used.
A [patch for CVE-2016-8616](https://curl.haxx.se/CVE-2016-8616.patch) is
available.
RECOMMENDATIONS
---------------
We suggest you take one of the following actions immediately, in order of
preference:
  A - Upgrade curl and libcurl to version 7.51.0
  B - Apply the patch to your version and rebuild
TIME LINE
---------
It was first reported to the curl project on September 23 by Cure53.
We contacted distros_at_openwall on October 19.
curl 7.51.0 was released on November 2 2016, coordinated with the publication
of this advisory.
CREDITS
-------
This vulnerability was found during a Secure Open Source audit performed by
Cure53.
-- 
  / daniel.haxx.se
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