curl <7.88.0 HSTS State Not Carried - Cleartext Transmission Issue
CVE-2023-23914 Published on February 23, 2023
A cleartext transmission of sensitive information vulnerability exists in curl <v7.88.0 that could cause HSTS functionality fail when multiple URLs are requested serially. Using its HSTS support, curl can be instructed to use HTTPS instead of usingan insecure clear-text HTTP step even when HTTP is provided in the URL. ThisHSTS mechanism would however surprisingly be ignored by subsequent transferswhen done on the same command line because the state would not be properlycarried on.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2023-23914 is exploitable with network access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. An automatable proof of concept (POC) exploit exists. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have a high impact on confidentiality and integrity, and no impact on availability.
Weakness Type
Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information
The software transmits sensitive or security-critical data in cleartext in a communication channel that can be sniffed by unauthorized actors. Many communication channels can be "sniffed" by attackers during data transmission. For example, network traffic can often be sniffed by any attacker who has access to a network interface. This significantly lowers the difficulty of exploitation by attackers.
Products Associated with CVE-2023-23914
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Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.