Curl Releases Fixes For High
Vulnerabilities mentionedAll →
| CVE | Vulnerability | CVSS | EPSS | Flags | Affected | Exposure | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2023-38545 +1 in the same advisory: …38546 | This flaw makes curl overflow a heap based buffer in the SOCKS5 proxy handshake. This flaw makes curl overflow a heap based buffer in the SOCKS5 proxy handshake. When curl is asked to pass along the host name to the SOCKS5 proxy to allow that to resolve the address instead of it getting done by curl itself, the maximum length that host name can be is 255 bytes. If the host name is detected to be longer, curl switches to local name resolving and instead passes on the resolved address only. Due to this bug, the local variable that means "let the host resolve the name" could get the wrong value during a slow SOCKS5 handshake, and contrary to the intention, copy the too long host name to the target buffer instead of copying just the resolved address there. The target buffer being a heap based buffer, and the host name coming from the URL that curl has been told to operate with. NVD description · AI analysis pending | 9.8 group max | 78% |
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Full article357 words · extracted from infosecurity-magazine.com · click to collapse
In a recent security alert, the team behind the popular open-source tool curl has announced the release of fixes for two vulnerabilities: CVE-2023-38545 and CVE-2023-38546.
Today’s release marks a crucial step in addressing these security concerns. Curl, a command-line tool for data transfer supporting various network protocols, plays a vital role in countless applications, with over 20 billion installations worldwide. Its underlying library, libcurl, also serves as a backbone for web-aware applications, making it an essential component of the internet ecosystem.
The high-severity vulnerability, CVE-2023-38545, affects both curl and libcurl, potentially allowing a heap buffer overflow in the SOCKS5 proxy handshake. This flaw could be exploited under specific conditions and poses a significant security risk.
The low-severity CVE-2023-38546, on the other hand, pertains to a cookie injection issue within libcurl, offering attackers the ability to insert cookies into a running program.
“Attackers may integrate such vulnerabilities into automated tools, malware and bots, enabling automatic exploitation across various systems and applications,” explained Saeed Abbasi, manager of vulnerability and threat research at Qualys.
“While the exploitation involves using a slow SOCKS5 handshake and a specifically crafted URL, it’s conceivable that the technical barrier might not be excessively high for attackers with a certain level of expertise.”
The release of curl 8.4.0 aims to address these vulnerabilities, primarily focusing on CVE-2023-38545. This update ensures that curl no longer switches to local resolve mode if a hostname is too long, thus mitigating the risk of heap buffer overflows.
Abbasi wrote in the Qualys blog last week, recommending that organizations urgently inventory and scan their systems that use curl and libcurl to identify potentially vulnerable versions.
“Organizations must act swiftly to inventory, scan, and update all systems utilizing curl and libcurl,” he warned.
“In particular, the gravity of the high-severity vulnerability mandates immediate and cautious attention to safeguarding interconnected and web-aware applications, ensuring the rich data transfer functionality curl and libcurl provide remain unimpaired and secure.”
Now that patches for these flaws are available, companies should update promptly to secure their systems.
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