GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Maven

GHSA-5vcm-3xc3-w7x3 Response Splitting from unsanitized headers

HIGH Published 2021-09-22 Modified 2025-12-11 Official page ↗
Aliases
CVE-2021-41084
Ecosystem
Maven
Packages
org.http4s:http4s-client_2.12, org.http4s:http4s-client_2.13, org.http4s:http4s-client_3, org.http4s:http4s-server_2.10, org.http4s:http4s-server_2.11, org.http4s:http4s-server_2.12, org.http4s:http4s-server_2.13, org.http4s:http4s-server_2.13.0-M5, org.http4s:http4s-server_3
Severity
High
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Weaknesses
CWE-74, CWE-918
Reviewed
2021-09-21

Affected packages

• Maven org.http4s:http4s-client_2.12: < 0.21.29 → fixed in 0.21.29 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-client_2.12: >= 0.22.0, < 0.22.5 → fixed in 0.22.5 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-client_2.12: >= 0.23.0, < 0.23.4 → fixed in 0.23.4 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-client_2.13: < 0.21.29 → fixed in 0.21.29 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-client_2.13: >= 0.22.0, < 0.22.5 → fixed in 0.22.5 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-client_2.13: >= 0.23.0, < 0.23.4 → fixed in 0.23.4 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-client_3: < 0.21.29 → fixed in 0.21.29 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-client_3: >= 0.22.0, < 0.22.5 → fixed in 0.22.5 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-client_3: >= 0.23.0, < 0.23.4 → fixed in 0.23.4 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_2.10: <= 0.21.28 (no fix yet) • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_2.11: <= 0.21.28 (no fix yet) • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_2.12: < 0.21.29 → fixed in 0.21.29 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_2.12: >= 0.22.0, < 0.22.5 → fixed in 0.22.5 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_2.12: >= 0.23.0, < 0.23.4 → fixed in 0.23.4 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_2.13: < 0.21.29 → fixed in 0.21.29 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_2.13: >= 0.22.0, < 0.22.5 → fixed in 0.22.5 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_2.13: >= 0.23.0, < 0.23.4 → fixed in 0.23.4 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_2.13.0-M5: <= 0.21.28 (no fix yet) • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_3: >= 0.22.0, < 0.22.5 → fixed in 0.22.5 • Maven org.http4s:http4s-server_3: >= 0.23.0, < 0.23.4 → fixed in 0.23.4

Description

Impact http4s is vulnerable to response-splitting or request-splitting attacks when untrusted user input is used to create any of the following fields: • Header names (`Header.name`å • Header values (`Header.value`) • Status reason phrases (`Status.reason`) • URI paths (`Uri.Path`) • URI authority registered names (`URI.RegName`) (through 0.21) The following backends render invalid carriage return, newline, or null characters in an unsafe fashion. | | blaze-server | ember-server | blaze-client | ember-client | jetty-client | |:---------------|:-------------|:-------------|:-------------|--------------|--------------| | header names | ⚠ | ⚠ | ⚠ | ⚠ | ⚠ | | header values | ⚠ | ⚠ | ⚠ | ⚠ | | | status reasons | ⚠ | ⚠ | | | | | URI paths | | | ⚠ | ⚠ | | | URI regnames | | | ⚠ IO.never) val httpApp: HttpApp[IO] = HttpApp[IO] { req => req.params.get("author") match { case Some(author) => Ok("The real content") .map(_.putHeaders(Header("Set-Cookie", s"author=${author}"))) case None => BadRequest("No author parameter") } } } ``` A clean `author` parameter returns a clean response: ```sh curl -i 'http://localhost:8080/?author=Ross' ``` ```http HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Set-Cookie: author=Ross Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2021 04:12:10 GMT Content-Length: 16 The real content ``` A malicious `author` parameter allows a user-agent to hijack the response from our server and return different content: ```sh curl -i 'http://localhost:8080/?author=hax0r%0d%0aContent-Length:+13%0d%0a%0aI+hacked+you' ``` ```http HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Set-Cookie: author=hax0r Content-Length: 13 I hacked you ``` Patches Versions 0.21.29, 0.22.5, 0.23.4, and 1.0.0-M27 perform the following: • If a status reasoon phrase is invalid, it is dropped. Rendering is optional per spec. • If a header name is invalid in a request or response, the header is dropped. There is no way to generically sanitize a header without potentially shadowing a correct one. • If a header value is invalid in a request or response, it is sanitized by replacing null (`\u0000`), carriage return (`\r`), and newline (`\n`) with space (` `) characters per spec. • If a URI path or registered name is invalid in a request line, the client raises an `IllegalArgumentException`. • If a URI registered name is invalid in a host header, the client raises an `IllegalArgumentException`. Workarounds http4s services and client applications should sanitize any user input in the aforementioned fields before returning a request or response to the backend. The carriage return, newline, and null characters are the most threatening. Not all backends were affected: jetty-server, tomcat-server, armeria, and netty on the server; async-http-client, okhttp-client, armeria, and netty as clients. References • https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/HTTP_Response_Splitting • https://httpwg.org/http-core/draft-ietf-httpbis-semantics-latest.html#fields.values For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory: • Open an issue in GitHub • Contact us via the http4s security policy

Related

Alias · CVE (1)

  • CVE-2021-41084 http4s is an open source scala interface for HTTP. vulnerability

Weakness · CWE (2)

  • CWE-74 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component weakness
  • CWE-918 Server-Side Request Forgery weakness

References