Curl Curl vulnerabilities

During an upload, curl mishandles HTTP/2 `RST_STREAM` received from the server (with reason `HTTP_1_1_REQUIRED` or `REFUSED_STREAM`) leading to a use after free of a `struct Curl_easy` object.

When a libcurl-based application performs transfers via `SCP://` or `SFTP://` and utilizes the `CURLOPT_SSH_KEYFUNCTION` callback, it may silently accept an untrusted server. This vulnerability occurs when a server presents a host key type that does not match the specific key type already recorded for that host in the `known_hosts` file. Instead of rejecting the mismatch, the callback mechanism fails to properly enforce the restriction, allowing the connection to succeed without warning and risking a potential man-in-the-middle attack.

A vulnerability in libcurl caused the HTTP `Referer:` header to persist even when explicitly cleared. While the documentation states that passing NULL to `CURLOPT_REFERER` suppresses the header, the option failed to clear the internal state. As a result, the previous referrer string was erroneously reused and sent in subsequent requests, potentially leaking sensitive information to unintended servers.

In this scenario, libcurl first uses a proper HTTP/3 server for the initial transfers, and when it makes a second transfer to the same site it has been replaced by the attacker's impostor machine - without a valid certificate. When libcurl returns to the hostname the second time with a cached SSL session (`CURLOPT_SSL_SESSIONID_CACHE` is not disabled) and early data enabled (the `CURLSSLOPT_EARLYDATA` bit is set in `CURLOPT_SSL_OPTIONS`), libcurl might send off the second request's bytes on that new connection *before* enforcing the certificate verification failure. Potentially leaking sensitive information.

Calling `curl_easy_pause()` within the event-based `CURLMOPT_SOCKETFUNCTION` callback triggers a use-after-free vulnerability, where libcurl attempts to store a flag using a dangling struct pointer immediately after that pointer's memory has been freed.

libcurl would reuse a previously created connection even when some mTLS config related option had been changed that should have prohibited reuse. libcurl keeps previously used connections in a connection pool for subsequent transfers to reuse if one of them matches the setup. However, some TLS settings related to client certificates were left out from the configuration match checks, making them match too easily. In particular options related to the private key.

A vulnerability exists where a new transfer that uses STARTTLS to upgrade the connection might reuse an existing live connection even though the TLS configuration mismatches so it should not.

When a user invokes curl using a schemeless URL combined with `--proto-default` sftp (or scp), a disconnect occurs between the tool layer and libcurl. The tool layer incorrectly infers the URL scheme, which erroneously bypasses the initialization of critical SSH security options like CURLOPT_SSH_HOST_PUBLIC_KEY_SHA256 and CURLOPT_SSH_KNOWNHOSTS. Conversely, the libcurl runtime successfully honors CURLOPT_DEFAULT_PROTOCOL and establishes the connection via SFTP/SCP as specified. Because the tool layer skipped the security configuration, these SSH host verification options are silently omitted, causing curl to connect to an unverified SSH remote host without throwing an error.

By default, curl automatically responds to WebSocket PING frames. Because curl lacks an upper bound on memory allocation for unacknowledged frames, a malicious server can exhaust all available memory by flooding curl with rapid, sequential PING messages.

An issue in curl’s QUIC UDP receive function allows a malicious HTTP/3 server to trigger a remote denial of service against a curl or libcurl client. Because the helper function discards zero-length UDP datagrams before counting them toward the per-call packet budget, a connected QUIC peer can continuously stream empty datagrams to indefinitely stall the client.

Using libcurl, when a custom `Host:` header is first set for an HTTP request and a second request is subsequently done using the same *easy handle* but without the custom `Host:` header set, the second request would use stale information and pass on cookies meant for the first host in the second request. Leak them.

libcurl might in some circumstances reuse the wrong connection for SMB(S) transfers. libcurl features a pool of recent connections so that subsequent requests can reuse an existing connection to avoid overhead. When reusing a connection a range of criteria must be met. Due to a logical error in the code, a network transfer operation that was requested by an application could wrongfully reuse an existing SMB connection to the same server that was using a different "share" than the new subsequent transfer should. This could in unlucky situations lead to the download of the wrong file or the upload of a file to the wrong place. When this happens, the same credentials are used and the server name is the same.