What happened
Cowrie versions prior to 2.9.0 contain a server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the emulated shell implementation of wget and curl. In the default emulated shell configuration, these command emulations perform real outbound HTTP requests to attacker-supplied destinations. Because no outbound request rate limiting was enforced, unauthenticated remote attackers could repeatedly invoke these commands to generate unbounded HTTP traffic toward arbitrary third-party targets, allowing the Cowrie honeypot to be abused as a denial-of-service amplification node and masking the attacker’s true source address behind the honeypot’s IP.
Affected versions
Cowrie: before 2.9.0 (semver) 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.