curl vulnerability

What happened

libcurl can in some circumstances reuse the wrong connection when asked to do an Negotiate-authenticated HTTP or HTTPS request. libcurl features a pool of recent connections so that subsequent requests can reuse an existing connection to avoid overhead. When reusing a connection a range of criterion must first be met. Due to a logical error in the code, a request that was issued by an application could wrongfully reuse an existing connection to the same server that was authenticated using different credentials. One underlying reason being that Negotiate sometimes authenticates *connections* and not *requests*, contrary to how HTTP is designed to work. An application that allows Negotiate authentication to a server (that responds wanting Negotiate) with `user1:password1` and then does another operation to the same server also using Negotiate but with `user2:password2` (while the previous connection is still alive) - the second request wrongly reused the same connection and since it then sees that the Negotiate negotiation is already made, it sends the request over that connection thinking it uses the user2 credentials when it is in fact still using the connection authenticated for user1... The set of authentication methods to use is set with `CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH`. Applications can disable libcurl's reuse of connections and thus mitigate this problem, by using one of the following libcurl options to alter how connections are or are not reused: `CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT`, `CURLOPT_MAXCONNECTS` and `CURLMOPT_MAX_HOST_CONNECTIONS` (if using the curl_multi API).

Affected versions

curl: 7.10.6 through before 8.14.2 (semver); 8.15.0 through before 8.16.1 (semver); 8.17.0 through before 8.19.0 (semver); e56ae1426cb7a0a4a427cf8d6099a821fdaae428 through before f1a39f221d57354990e3eeeddc3404aede2aff70 (git); 8.18.0; 8.17.0; 8.16.0; 8.15.0; 8.14.1; 8.14.0; 8.13.0; 8.12.1; 8.12.0; 8.11.1; 8.11.0; 8.10.1; 8.10.0; 8.9.1; 8.9.0; 8.8.0; 8.7.1; 8.7.0; 8.6.0; 8.5.0; 8.4.0; 8.3.0; 8.2.1; 8.2.0; 8.1.2; 8.1.1; 8.1.0; 8.0.1; 8.0.0; 7.88.1; 7.88.0; 7.87.0; 7.86.0; 7.85.0; 7.84.0; 7.83.1; 7.83.0; 7.82.0; 7.81.0; 7.80.0; 7.79.1; 7.79.0; 7.78.0; 7.77.0; 7.76.1; 7.76.0; 7.75.0; 7.74.0; 7.73.0; 7.72.0; 7.71.1; 7.71.0; 7.70.0; 7.69.1; 7.69.0; 7.68.0; 7.67.0; 7.66.0; 7.65.3; 7.65.2; 7.65.1; 7.65.0; 7.64.1; 7.64.0; 7.63.0; 7.62.0; 7.61.1; 7.61.0; 7.60.0; 7.59.0; 7.58.0; 7.57.0; 7.56.1; 7.56.0; 7.55.1; 7.55.0; 7.54.1; 7.54.0; 7.53.1; 7.53.0; 7.52.1; 7.52.0; 7.51.0; 7.50.3; 7.50.2; 7.50.1; 7.50.0; 7.49.1; 7.49.0; 7.48.0; 7.47.1; 7.47.0; 7.46.0; 7.45.0; 7.44.0; 7.43.0; 7.42.1; 7.42.0; 7.41.0; 7.40.0; 7.39.0; 7.38.0; 7.37.1; 7.37.0; 7.36.0; 7.35.0; 7.34.0; 7.33.0; 7.32.0; 7.31.0; 7.30.0; 7.29.0; 7.28.1; 7.28.0; 7.27.0; 7.26.0; 7.25.0; 7.24.0; 7.23.1; 7.23.0; 7.22.0; 7.21.7; 7.21.6; 7.21.5; 7.21.4; 7.21.3; 7.21.2; 7.21.1; 7.21.0; 7.20.1; 7.20.0; 7.19.7; 7.19.6; 7.19.5; 7.19.4; 7.19.3; 7.19.2; 7.19.1; 7.19.0; 7.18.2; 7.18.1; 7.18.0; 7.17.1; 7.17.0; 7.16.4; 7.16.3; 7.16.2; 7.16.1; 7.16.0; 7.15.5; 7.15.4; 7.15.3; 7.15.2; 7.15.1; 7.15.0; 7.14.1; 7.14.0; 7.13.2; 7.13.1; 7.13.0; 7.12.3; 7.12.2; 7.12.1; 7.12.0; 7.11.2; 7.11.1; 7.11.0; 7.10.8; 7.10.7; 7.10.6 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.