What happened
Using its HSTS support, curl can be instructed to use HTTPS directly insteadof using an insecure clear-text HTTP step even when HTTP is provided in theURL. This mechanism could be bypassed if the host name in the given URL used atrailing dot while not using one when it built the HSTS cache. Or the otherway around - by having the trailing dot in the HSTS cache and *not* using thetrailing dot in the URL.
Affected versions
https://github.com/curl/curl: Fixed in 7.83.1; V3.1.0 through before V3.1.5 (custom) Fixed: See vendor advisory.
Why it matters
Review the vendor advisory and exposure of the affected product to determine operational impact.
Detection & mitigation
- Apply vendor-provided updates or mitigations.
- Review affected product exposure and access logs.