2024-03-15 20:55:33 -06:00
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.\" generated by cd2nroff 0.1 from libcurl-security.md
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2024-06-01 14:49:19 -06:00
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.TH libcurl-security 3 "2024-06-01" libcurl
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2024-03-15 20:55:33 -06:00
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.SH NAME
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libcurl\-security \- security considerations when using libcurl
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.SH Security
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The libcurl project takes security seriously. The library is written with
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caution and precautions are taken to mitigate many kinds of risks encountered
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while operating with potentially malicious servers on the Internet. It is a
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powerful library, however, which allows application writers to make trade\-offs
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between ease of writing and exposure to potential risky operations. If used
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the right way, you can use libcurl to transfer data pretty safely.
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Many applications are used in closed networks where users and servers can
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(possibly) be trusted, but many others are used on arbitrary servers and are
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fed input from potentially untrusted users. Following is a discussion about
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some risks in the ways in which applications commonly use libcurl and
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potential mitigations of those risks. It is not comprehensive, but shows
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classes of attacks that robust applications should consider. The Common
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Weakness Enumeration project at https://cwe.mitre.org/ is a good reference for
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many of these and similar types of weaknesses of which application writers
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should be aware.
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.SH Command Lines
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If you use a command line tool (such as curl) that uses libcurl, and you give
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options to the tool on the command line those options can get read by other
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users of your system when they use \fIps\fP or other tools to list currently
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running processes.
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To avoid these problems, never feed sensitive things to programs using command
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line options. Write them to a protected file and use the \-K option to avoid
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this.
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.SH .netrc
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\&.netrc is a pretty handy file/feature that allows you to login quickly and
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automatically to frequently visited sites. The file contains passwords in
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clear text and is a real security risk. In some cases, your .netrc is also
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stored in a home directory that is NFS mounted or used on another network
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based file system, so the clear text password flies through your network every
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time anyone reads that file.
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For applications that enable .netrc use, a user who manage to set the right
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URL might then be possible to pass on passwords.
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To avoid these problems, do not use .netrc files and never store passwords in
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plain text anywhere.
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.SH Clear Text Passwords
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Many of the protocols libcurl supports send name and password unencrypted as
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clear text (HTTP Basic authentication, FTP, TELNET etc). It is easy for anyone
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on your network or a network nearby yours to just fire up a network analyzer
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tool and eavesdrop on your passwords. Do not let the fact that HTTP Basic uses
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base64 encoded passwords fool you. They may not look readable at a first
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glance, but they are easily "deciphered" by anyone within seconds.
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To avoid this problem, use an authentication mechanism or other protocol that
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does not let snoopers see your password: Digest, CRAM\-MD5, Kerberos, SPNEGO or
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NTLM authentication. Or even better: use authenticated protocols that protect
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the entire connection and everything sent over it.
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.SH Unauthenticated Connections
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Protocols that do not have any form of cryptographic authentication cannot
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with any certainty know that they communicate with the right remote server.
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If your application is using a fixed scheme or fixed hostname, it is not safe
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as long as the connection is unauthenticated. There can be a man\-in\-the\-middle
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or in fact the whole server might have been replaced by an evil actor.
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Unauthenticated protocols are unsafe. The data that comes back to curl may
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have been injected by an attacker. The data that curl sends might be modified
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before it reaches the intended server. If it even reaches the intended server
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at all.
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Remedies:
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.IP "Restrict operations to authenticated transfers"
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Use authenticated protocols protected with HTTPS or SSH.
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.IP "Make sure the server's certificate etc is verified"
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Never ever switch off certificate verification.
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.SH Redirects
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The \fICURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION(3)\fP option automatically follows HTTP
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redirects sent by a remote server. These redirects can refer to any kind of
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URL, not just HTTP. libcurl restricts the protocols allowed to be used in
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redirects for security reasons: only HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS are
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enabled by default. Applications may opt to restrict that set further.
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A redirect to a file: URL would cause the libcurl to read (or write) arbitrary
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files from the local filesystem. If the application returns the data back to
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the user (as would happen in some kinds of CGI scripts), an attacker could
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leverage this to read otherwise forbidden data (e.g.
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\fBfile://localhost/etc/passwd\fP).
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If authentication credentials are stored in the ~/.netrc file, or Kerberos is
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in use, any other URL type (not just file:) that requires authentication is
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also at risk. A redirect such as \fBftp://some\-internal\-server/private\-file\fP would
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then return data even when the server is password protected.
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In the same way, if an unencrypted SSH private key has been configured for the
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user running the libcurl application, SCP: or SFTP: URLs could access password
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or private\-key protected resources,
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e.g. \fBsftp://user@some\-internal\-server/etc/passwd\fP
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The \fICURLOPT_REDIR_PROTOCOLS(3)\fP and \fICURLOPT_NETRC(3)\fP options can be
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used to mitigate against this kind of attack.
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A redirect can also specify a location available only on the machine running
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libcurl, including servers hidden behind a firewall from the attacker.
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E.g. \fBhttp://127.0.0.1/\fP or \fBhttp://intranet/delete\-stuff.cgi?delete=all\fP or
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\fBtftp://bootp\-server/pc\-config\-data\fP
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Applications can mitigate against this by disabling
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\fICURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION(3)\fP and handling redirects itself, sanitizing URLs
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as necessary. Alternately, an app could leave \fICURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION(3)\fP
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enabled but set \fICURLOPT_REDIR_PROTOCOLS(3)\fP and install a
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\fICURLOPT_OPENSOCKETFUNCTION(3)\fP or \fICURLOPT_PREREQFUNCTION(3)\fP callback
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function in which addresses are sanitized before use.
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.SH CRLF in Headers
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For all options in libcurl which specify headers, including but not limited to
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\fICURLOPT_HTTPHEADER(3)\fP, \fICURLOPT_PROXYHEADER(3)\fP,
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\fICURLOPT_COOKIE(3)\fP, \fICURLOPT_USERAGENT(3)\fP, \fICURLOPT_REFERER(3)\fP
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and \fICURLOPT_RANGE(3)\fP, libcurl sends the headers as\-is and does not apply
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any special sanitation or normalization to them.
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If you allow untrusted user input into these options without sanitizing CRLF
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sequences in them, someone malicious may be able to modify the request in a
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way you did not intend such as injecting new headers.
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.SH Local Resources
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A user who can control the DNS server of a domain being passed in within a URL
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can change the address of the host to a local, private address which a
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server\-side libcurl\-using application could then use. E.g. the innocuous URL
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\fBhttp://fuzzybunnies.example.com/\fP could actually resolve to the IP
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address of a server behind a firewall, such as 127.0.0.1 or
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10.1.2.3. Applications can mitigate against this by setting a
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\fICURLOPT_OPENSOCKETFUNCTION(3)\fP or \fICURLOPT_PREREQFUNCTION(3)\fP and
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checking the address before a connection.
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All the malicious scenarios regarding redirected URLs apply just as well to
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non\-redirected URLs, if the user is allowed to specify an arbitrary URL that
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could point to a private resource. For example, a web app providing a
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translation service might happily translate \fBfile://localhost/etc/passwd\fP
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and display the result. Applications can mitigate against this with the
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\fICURLOPT_PROTOCOLS(3)\fP option as well as by similar mitigation techniques
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for redirections.
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A malicious FTP server could in response to the PASV command return an IP
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address and port number for a server local to the app running libcurl but
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behind a firewall. Applications can mitigate against this by using the
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\fICURLOPT_FTP_SKIP_PASV_IP(3)\fP option or \fICURLOPT_FTPPORT(3)\fP.
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Local servers sometimes assume local access comes from friends and trusted
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users. An application that expects https://example.com/file_to_read that and
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instead gets http://192.168.0.1/my_router_config might print a file that would
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otherwise be protected by the firewall.
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Allowing your application to connect to local hosts, be it the same machine
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that runs the application or a machine on the same local network, might be
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possible to exploit by an attacker who then perhaps can "port\-scan" the
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particular hosts \- depending on how the application and servers acts.
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.SH IPv4 Addresses
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Some users might be tempted to filter access to local resources or similar
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based on numerical IPv4 addresses used in URLs. This is a bad and error\-prone
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idea because of the many different ways a numerical IPv4 address can be
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specified and libcurl accepts: one to four dot\-separated fields using one of
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or a mix of decimal, octal or hexadecimal encoding.
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.SH IPv6 Addresses
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libcurl handles IPv6 addresses transparently and just as easily as IPv4
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addresses. That means that a sanitizing function that filters out addresses
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like 127.0.0.1 is not sufficient \- the equivalent IPv6 addresses \fB::1\fP,
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\fB::\fP, \fB0:00::0:1\fP, \fB::127.0.0.1\fP and \fB::ffff:7f00:1\fP supplied
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somehow by an attacker would all bypass a naive filter and could allow access
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to undesired local resources. IPv6 also has special address blocks like
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link\-local and site\-local that generally should not be accessed by a
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server\-side libcurl\-using application. A poorly configured firewall installed
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in a data center, organization or server may also be configured to limit IPv4
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connections but leave IPv6 connections wide open. In some cases, setting
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\fICURLOPT_IPRESOLVE(3)\fP to CURL_IPRESOLVE_V4 can be used to limit resolved
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addresses to IPv4 only and bypass these issues.
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.SH Uploads
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When uploading, a redirect can cause a local (or remote) file to be
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overwritten. Applications must not allow any unsanitized URL to be passed in
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for uploads. Also, \fICURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION(3)\fP should not be used on
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uploads. Instead, the applications should consider handling redirects itself,
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sanitizing each URL first.
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.SH Authentication
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Use of \fICURLOPT_UNRESTRICTED_AUTH(3)\fP could cause authentication
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information to be sent to an unknown second server. Applications can mitigate
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against this by disabling \fICURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION(3)\fP and handling
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redirects itself, sanitizing where necessary.
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2024-03-30 12:28:04 -06:00
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Use of the CURLAUTH_ANY option to \fICURLOPT_HTTPAUTH(3)\fP could result in username
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and password being sent in clear text to an HTTP server. Instead, use
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CURLAUTH_ANYSAFE which ensures that the password is encrypted over the
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2024-03-15 20:55:33 -06:00
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network, or else fail the request.
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Use of the CURLUSESSL_TRY option to \fICURLOPT_USE_SSL(3)\fP could result in
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2024-03-30 12:28:04 -06:00
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username and password being sent in clear text to an FTP server. Instead, use
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CURLUSESSL_CONTROL to ensure that an encrypted connection is used or else fail
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the request.
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2024-03-15 20:55:33 -06:00
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.SH Cookies
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If cookies are enabled and cached, then a user could craft a URL which
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performs some malicious action to a site whose authentication is already
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stored in a cookie. E.g.
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\fBhttp://mail.example.com/delete\-stuff.cgi?delete=all\fP Applications can
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mitigate against this by disabling cookies or clearing them between requests.
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.SH Dangerous SCP URLs
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SCP URLs can contain raw commands within the scp: URL, which is a side effect
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of how the SCP protocol is designed. E.g.
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.nf
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scp://user:pass@host/a;date >/tmp/test;
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.fi
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Applications must not allow unsanitized SCP: URLs to be passed in for
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downloads.
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.SH file://
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By default curl and libcurl support file:// URLs. Such a URL is always an
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access, or attempted access, to a local resource. If your application wants to
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avoid that, keep control of what URLs to use and/or prevent curl/libcurl from
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using the protocol.
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By default, libcurl prohibits redirects to file:// URLs.
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.SH Warning: file:// on Windows
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The Windows operating system tries automatically, and without any way for
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applications to disable it, to establish a connection to another host over the
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network and access it (over SMB or other protocols), if only the correct file
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path is accessed.
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When first realizing this, the curl team tried to filter out such attempts in
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order to protect applications for inadvertent probes of for example internal
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networks etc. This resulted in CVE\-2019\-15601 and the associated security fix.
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However, we have since been made aware of the fact that the previous fix was far
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from adequate as there are several other ways to accomplish more or less the
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same thing: accessing a remote host over the network instead of the local file
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system.
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The conclusion we have come to is that this is a weakness or feature in the
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Windows operating system itself, that we as an application cannot safely
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protect users against. It would just be a whack\-a\-mole race we do not want to
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participate in. There are too many ways to do it and there is no knob we can
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use to turn off the practice.
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If you use curl or libcurl on Windows (any version), disable the use of the
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FILE protocol in curl or be prepared that accesses to a range of "magic paths"
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potentially make your system access other hosts on your network. curl cannot
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protect you against this.
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.SH What if the user can set the URL
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Applications may find it tempting to let users set the URL that it can work
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on. That is probably fine, but opens up for mischief and trickery that you as
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an application author may want to address or take precautions against.
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If your curl\-using script allow a custom URL do you also, perhaps
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unintentionally, allow the user to pass other options to the curl command line
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if creative use of special characters are applied?
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If the user can set the URL, the user can also specify the scheme part to
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other protocols that you did not intend for users to use and perhaps did not
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consider. curl supports over 20 different URL schemes. "http://" might be what
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you thought, "ftp://" or "imap://" might be what the user gives your
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application. Also, cross\-protocol operations might be done by using a
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particular scheme in the URL but point to a server doing a different protocol
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on a non\-standard port.
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Remedies:
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.IP "Use --proto"
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curl command lines can use \fI\--proto\fP to limit what URL schemes it accepts
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.IP "Use CURLOPT_PROTOCOLS"
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libcurl programs can use \fICURLOPT_PROTOCOLS(3)\fP to limit what URL schemes it accepts
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.IP "consider not allowing the user to set the full URL"
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Maybe just let the user provide data for parts of it? Or maybe filter input to
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only allow specific choices?
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.SH RFC 3986 vs WHATWG URL
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curl supports URLs mostly according to how they are defined in RFC 3986, and
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has done so since the beginning.
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Web browsers mostly adhere to the WHATWG URL Specification.
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This deviance makes some URLs copied between browsers (or returned over HTTP
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for redirection) and curl not work the same way. It can also cause problems if
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an application parses URLs differently from libcurl and makes different
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assumptions about a link. This can mislead users into getting the wrong thing,
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connecting to the wrong host or otherwise not working identically.
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Within an application, this can be mitigated by always using the
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\fIcurl_url(3)\fP API to parse URLs, ensuring that they are parsed the same way
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as within libcurl itself.
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.SH FTP uses two connections
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When performing an FTP transfer, two TCP connections are used: one for setting
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up the transfer and one for the actual data.
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FTP is not only unauthenticated, but the setting up of the second transfer is
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also a weak spot. The second connection to use for data, is either setup with
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the PORT/EPRT command that makes the server connect back to the client on the
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given IP+PORT, or with PASV/EPSV that makes the server setup a port to listen
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to and tells the client to connect to a given IP+PORT.
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Again, unauthenticated means that the connection might be meddled with by a
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man\-in\-the\-middle or that there is a malicious server pretending to be the
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right one.
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A malicious FTP server can respond to PASV commands with the IP+PORT of a
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totally different machine. Perhaps even a third party host, and when there are
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many clients trying to connect to that third party, it could create a
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Distributed Denial\-Of\-Service attack out of it. If the client makes an upload
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operation, it can make the client send the data to another site. If the
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attacker can affect what data the client uploads, it can be made to work as a
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HTTP request and then the client could be made to issue HTTP requests to third
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party hosts.
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An attacker that manages to control curl\(aqs command line options can tell curl
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to send an FTP PORT command to ask the server to connect to a third party host
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instead of back to curl.
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The fact that FTP uses two connections makes it vulnerable in a way that is
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hard to avoid.
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2024-03-30 12:28:04 -06:00
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.SH Active FTP passes on the local IP address
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If you use curl/libcurl to do \fIactive\fP FTP transfers, curl passes on the
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address of your local IP to the remote server \- even when for example using a
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SOCKS or HTTP proxy in between curl and the target server.
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2024-03-15 20:55:33 -06:00
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.SH Denial of Service
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A malicious server could cause libcurl to effectively hang by sending data
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slowly, or even no data at all but just keeping the TCP connection open. This
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could effectively result in a denial\-of\-service attack. The
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\fICURLOPT_TIMEOUT(3)\fP and/or \fICURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT(3)\fP options can
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be used to mitigate against this.
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A malicious server could cause libcurl to download an infinite amount of data,
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2024-06-01 14:49:19 -06:00
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potentially causing system resources to be exhausted resulting in a system or
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application crash. Setting the \fICURLOPT_MAXFILESIZE_LARGE(3)\fP option is not
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sufficient to guard against this. Instead, applications should monitor the
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amount of data received within the write or progress callback and abort once
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the limit is reached.
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2024-03-15 20:55:33 -06:00
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A malicious HTTP server could cause an infinite redirection loop, causing a
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denial\-of\-service. This can be mitigated by using the
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\fICURLOPT_MAXREDIRS(3)\fP option.
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.SH Arbitrary Headers
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User\-supplied data must be sanitized when used in options like
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\fICURLOPT_USERAGENT(3)\fP, \fICURLOPT_HTTPHEADER(3)\fP,
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\fICURLOPT_POSTFIELDS(3)\fP and others that are used to generate structured
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data. Characters like embedded carriage returns or ampersands could allow the
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user to create additional headers or fields that could cause malicious
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transactions.
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.SH Server-supplied Names
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A server can supply data which the application may, in some cases, use as a
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filename. The curl command\-line tool does this with \fI\--remote\-header\-name\fP,
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using the Content\-disposition: header to generate a filename. An application
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could also use \fICURLINFO_EFFECTIVE_URL(3)\fP to generate a filename from a
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server\-supplied redirect URL. Special care must be taken to sanitize such
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names to avoid the possibility of a malicious server supplying one like
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\fB"/etc/passwd"\fP, \fB"autoexec.bat"\fP, \fB"prn:"\fP or even \fB".bashrc"\fP.
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.SH Server Certificates
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A secure application should never use the \fICURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER(3)\fP
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option to disable certificate validation. There are numerous attacks that are
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enabled by applications that fail to properly validate server TLS/SSL
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certificates, thus enabling a malicious server to spoof a legitimate
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one. HTTPS without validated certificates is potentially as insecure as a
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plain HTTP connection.
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.SH Showing What You Do
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Relatedly, be aware that in situations when you have problems with libcurl and
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ask someone for help, everything you reveal in order to get best possible help
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might also impose certain security related risks. Hostnames, usernames, paths,
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operating system specifics, etc. (not to mention passwords of course) may in
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fact be used by intruders to gain additional information of a potential
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2024-03-15 20:55:33 -06:00
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target.
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Be sure to limit access to application logs if they could hold private or
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2024-03-30 12:28:04 -06:00
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security\-related data. Besides the obvious candidates like usernames and
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passwords, things like URLs, cookies or even filenames could also hold
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2024-03-15 20:55:33 -06:00
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sensitive data.
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To avoid this problem, you must of course use your common sense. Often, you
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can just edit out the sensitive data or just search/replace your true
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information with faked data.
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.SH setuid applications using libcurl
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libcurl\-using applications that set the \(aqsetuid\(aq bit to run with elevated or
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modified rights also implicitly give that extra power to libcurl and this
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should only be done after careful considerations.
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Giving setuid powers to the application means that libcurl can save files using
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those new rights (if for example the \fISSLKEYLOGFILE\fP environment variable is
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set). Also: if the application wants these powers to read or manage secrets
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that the user is otherwise not able to view (like credentials for a login
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etc), it should be noted that libcurl still might understand proxy environment
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variables that allow the user to redirect libcurl operations to use a proxy
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controlled by the user.
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.SH File descriptors, fork and NTLM
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An application that uses libcurl and invokes \fIfork()\fP gets all file
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descriptors duplicated in the child process, including the ones libcurl
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created.
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libcurl itself uses \fIfork()\fP and \fIexecl()\fP if told to use the
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\fBCURLAUTH_NTLM_WB\fP authentication method which then invokes the helper
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command in a child process with file descriptors duplicated. Make sure that
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only the trusted and reliable helper program is invoked!
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.SH Secrets in memory
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2024-03-30 12:28:04 -06:00
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When applications pass usernames, passwords or other sensitive data to
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2024-03-15 20:55:33 -06:00
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libcurl to be used for upcoming transfers, those secrets are kept around as\-is
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in memory. In many cases they are stored in the heap for as long as the handle
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itself for which the options are set.
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If an attacker can access the heap, like maybe by reading swap space or via a
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core dump file, such data might be accessible.
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Further, when eventually closing a handle and the secrets are no longer
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needed, libcurl does not explicitly clear memory before freeing it, so
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credentials may be left in freed data.
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.SH Saving files
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libcurl cannot protect against attacks where an attacker has write access to
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the same directory where libcurl is directed to save files.
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.SH Cookies
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If libcurl is built with PSL (\fBPublic Suffix List\fP) support, it detects and
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discards cookies that are specified for such suffix domains that should not be
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allowed to have cookies.
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if libcurl is \fInot\fP built with PSL support, it has no ability to stop super
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cookies.
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.SH Report Security Problems
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Should you detect or just suspect a security problem in libcurl or curl,
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contact the project curl security team immediately. See
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https://curl.se/dev/secprocess.html for details.
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.SH SEE ALSO
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.BR libcurl-thread (3)
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