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Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests ('HTTP Request/Response Smuggling')

CVE-2023-37276

Severity High
Score 7.5/10

Summary

The package aiohttp is an asynchronous HTTP client/server framework for asyncio and Python. In aiohttp versions 3.8.0a4 through 3.8.4 are bundled with llhttp. Vulnerable code is used by aiohttp for its HTTP request parser when available, which is the default case when installing from a wheel. This vulnerability only affects users of aiohttp as an HTTP server (ie `aiohttp.Application`), you are not affected by this vulnerability if you are using aiohttp as an HTTP client library (ie `aiohttp.ClientSession`). Sending a crafted HTTP request will cause the server to misinterpret one of the HTTP header values leading to HTTP request smuggling. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade can reinstall aiohttp using `AIOHTTP_NO_EXTENSIONS=1` as an environment variable to disable the llhttp HTTP request parser implementation. The pure Python implementation isn't vulnerable.

  • LOW
  • NETWORK
  • HIGH
  • UNCHANGED
  • NONE
  • NONE
  • NONE
  • NONE

CWE-444 - HTTP Request Smuggling

Entities such as web servers, web caching proxies, and application firewalls could parse HTTP requests differently. When there are two or more such entities in the path of an HTTP request, an attacker can send a specially crafted HTTP request that is seen as two different sets of requests by the attacked devices, allowing the attacker to smuggle a request into one device without the other device being aware of it. Such a vulnerability can prove devastating, for it enables further attacks on the application, like web cache poisoning, session hijacking, cross-site scripting, security bypassing, and sensitive information exposure.

Advisory Timeline

  • Published