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Re: Issue with MAX_COOKIE_HEADER_LEN

From: Benjamin Herrenschmidt via curl-library <curl-library_at_lists.haxx.se>
Date: Wed, 17 May 2023 19:17:26 +1000

On Wed, 2023-05-17 at 09:24 +0200, Daniel Stenberg wrote:

Thanks for your reply...


> On Wed, 17 May 2023, Benjamin Herrenschmidt via curl-library wrote:
>
> > And more specifically by the 8KB limit applied to the cookier headers.
> >
> > Now I understand the value in preventing runaway header attacks and it does
> > make a lot of sense to use a limit, but is there a reason not to make this
> > limit configurable for use cases where 8KB is simply not sufficient ?
>
> Yes, because they are (probably) no longer interoperable then.

 .../...
>
> ... meaning that if you go beyond these limits, there seem to be a big chance
> that they won't interoperate with other major cookie users, like browsers.
> Which probably brings the question back to your users: do they *REALLY* want
> larger cookies that then risk not being possible to use with other consumers
> anyway?
>
> This said, bumping curl's limit should still be harmless even if not quite
> interoperable.

In the general case, yes. That said, it could very well be that curl
(or libcurl) is used in specific cases (private API gateways etc...)
where the interoperability isn't a factor.

At this point I don't have enough data about the specific customer use
case. But I can imagine some that don't necessarily involve general
purpose components (web browser etc...).

I will try to get some data, at the very least so that I can ....

> > I'm generally weary of libcurl API/ABI changes, so the least disruptive
> > approach I can think of would be to have an env. variable that can
> > optionally raise the limit.
>
> I think I would rather prefer simply bumping the limit unconditionally for
> everyone. For simplicity. Both in code and for users.

 ... propose a reasonable value that works for them.

I agree, simpler is better and bumping the value wouldn't affect the
"spirit" of the original change which is to avoid unbounded growth.

Cheers,
Ben.
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Received on 2023-05-17