CVE-2023-38546 Affecting curl package, versions <8.4.0-r0


Severity

Recommended
0.0
low
0
10

Snyk's Security Team recommends NVD's CVSS assessment

    Threat Intelligence

    EPSS
    0.12% (48th percentile)

Do your applications use this vulnerable package?

In a few clicks we can analyze your entire application and see what components are vulnerable in your application, and suggest you quick fixes.

Test your applications
  • Snyk ID SNYK-ALPINE316-CURL-5958909
  • published 11 Oct 2023
  • disclosed 18 Oct 2023

How to fix?

Upgrade Alpine:3.16 curl to version 8.4.0-r0 or higher.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream curl package and not the curl package as distributed by Alpine. See How to fix? for Alpine:3.16 relevant fixed versions and status.

This flaw allows an attacker to insert cookies at will into a running program using libcurl, if the specific series of conditions are met.

libcurl performs transfers. In its API, an application creates "easy handles" that are the individual handles for single transfers.

libcurl provides a function call that duplicates en easy handle called curl_easy_duphandle.

If a transfer has cookies enabled when the handle is duplicated, the cookie-enable state is also cloned - but without cloning the actual cookies. If the source handle did not read any cookies from a specific file on disk, the cloned version of the handle would instead store the file name as none (using the four ASCII letters, no quotes).

Subsequent use of the cloned handle that does not explicitly set a source to load cookies from would then inadvertently load cookies from a file named none - if such a file exists and is readable in the current directory of the program using libcurl. And if using the correct file format of course.

CVSS Scores

version 3.1
Expand this section

NVD

Recommended
3.7 low
  • Attack Vector (AV)
    Network
  • Attack Complexity (AC)
    High
  • Privileges Required (PR)
    None
  • User Interaction (UI)
    None
  • Scope (S)
    Unchanged
  • Confidentiality (C)
    None
  • Integrity (I)
    Low
  • Availability (A)
    None
Expand this section

SUSE

4.5 medium
Expand this section

Red Hat

3.7 low