Squid <6.5: DoS via Oversized HTTP Header Settings (request_header_max_size)
CVE-2024-25617 Published on February 14, 2024
Denial of Service in HTTP Header parser in squid proxy
Squid is an open source caching proxy for the Web supporting HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and more. Due to a Collapse of Data into Unsafe Value bug ,Squid may be vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack against HTTP header parsing. This problem allows a remote client or a remote server to perform Denial of Service when sending oversized headers in HTTP messages. In versions of Squid prior to 6.5 this can be achieved if the request_header_max_size or reply_header_max_size settings are unchanged from the default. In Squid version 6.5 and later, the default setting of these parameters is safe. Squid will emit a critical warning in cache.log if the administrator is setting these parameters to unsafe values. Squid will not at this time prevent these settings from being changed to unsafe values. Users are advised to upgrade to version 6.5. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability. This issue is also tracked as SQUID-2024:2
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2024-25617 can be exploited with network access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have no impact on confidentiality and integrity, and a small impact on availability.
Weakness Types
What is a Resource Exhaustion Vulnerability?
The software does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources.
CVE-2024-25617 has been classified to as a Resource Exhaustion vulnerability or weakness.
Collapse of Data into Unsafe Value
The software filters data in a way that causes it to be reduced or "collapsed" into an unsafe value that violates an expected security property.
Products Associated with CVE-2024-25617
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Affected Versions
squid-cache squid:- Version < 6.5 is affected.
- Before 6.5 is affected.
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.