Skip to content

Possible request smuggling in HTTP/2 due missing validation

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Mar 9, 2021 in netty/netty • Updated Aug 16, 2023

Package

maven io.netty:netty (Maven)

Affected versions

< 4.0.0

Patched versions

None
maven io.netty:netty-codec-http2 (Maven)
>= 4.0.0, < 4.1.60.Final
4.1.60.Final
maven org.jboss.netty:netty (Maven)
< 4.0.0
None

Description

Impact

If a Content-Length header is present in the original HTTP/2 request, the field is not validated by Http2MultiplexHandler as it is propagated up. This is fine as long as the request is not proxied through as HTTP/1.1.
If the request comes in as an HTTP/2 stream, gets converted into the HTTP/1.1 domain objects (HttpRequest, HttpContent, etc.) via Http2StreamFrameToHttpObjectCodec and then sent up to the child channel's pipeline and proxied through a remote peer as HTTP/1.1 this may result in request smuggling.

In a proxy case, users may assume the content-length is validated somehow, which is not the case. If the request is forwarded to a backend channel that is a HTTP/1.1 connection, the Content-Length now has meaning and needs to be checked.

An attacker can smuggle requests inside the body as it gets downgraded from HTTP/2 to HTTP/1.1. A sample attack request looks like:

POST / HTTP/2
:authority:: externaldomain.com
Content-Length: 4

asdfGET /evilRedirect HTTP/1.1
Host: internaldomain.com

Users are only affected if all of this is true:

  • HTTP2MultiplexCodec or Http2FrameCodec is used
  • Http2StreamFrameToHttpObjectCodec is used to convert to HTTP/1.1 objects
  • These HTTP/1.1 objects are forwarded to another remote peer.

Patches

This has been patched in 4.1.60.Final

Workarounds

The user can do the validation by themselves by implementing a custom ChannelInboundHandler that is put in the ChannelPipeline behind Http2StreamFrameToHttpObjectCodec.

References

Related change to workaround the problem: Netflix/zuul#980

References

@normanmaurer normanmaurer published to netty/netty Mar 9, 2021
Reviewed Mar 9, 2021
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Mar 9, 2021
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Mar 9, 2021
Last updated Aug 16, 2023

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

EPSS score

16.209%
(96th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2021-21295

GHSA ID

GHSA-wm47-8v5p-wjpj

Source code

Credits

Loading Checking history
See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.