CVE-2023-38546
LowCVSS 3.7Summary
A flaw in libcurl allows an attacker to insert cookies at will into a running program if specific conditions are met. When an easy handle with cookies enabled is duplicated via curl_easy_duphandle and the source handle did not read cookies from a file, the cloned handle stores the filename as "none", potentially causing inadvertent loading of cookies from a file named "none" in the current directory.
Risk Assessment
An attacker can inject malicious cookies into an application using libcurl, potentially leading to session hijacking or privilege escalation.
Recommendation
Update libcurl to a version containing the fix (8.4.0 or later) and avoid duplicating handles with cookies enabled without explicitly setting a source.
Other vulnerabilities in libcurl
See all- CVE-2017-1000254High
libcurl may read outside of a heap allocated buffer when doing FTP. A flaw in the string parser for the directory name may lead to a missing NUL byte at the end of the buffer, resulting in the potential to read data beyond the allocated memory area.
- CVE-2016-5421High
Use-after-free vulnerability in libcurl before version 7.50.1 allows attackers to control which connection is used or possibly have unspecified other impact via unknown vectors.
- CVE-2016-0755High
The ConnectionExists function in lib/url.c in libcurl before version 7.47.0 does not properly re-use NTLM-authenticated proxy connections, which might allow remote attackers to authenticate as other users via a request.
- CVE-2025-4947Medium
libcurl accidentally skips certificate verification for QUIC connections when connecting to a host specified as an IP address in the URL. Therefore, it does not detect impostors or man-in-the-middle attacks.
- CVE-2024-6874Medium
The curl_url_get() function in libcurl offers punycode conversions to and from IDN. When converting a name that is exactly 256 bytes, libcurl reads outside a stack-based buffer when built with the macidn IDN backend.
- CVE-2025-5025Medium
libcurl supports pinning of the server certificate public key for HTTPS transfers. Due to an omission, this check is not performed when connecting with QUIC for HTTP/3, when the TLS backend is wolfSSL. Documentation says the option works with wolfSSL, but fails to specify that it does not for QUIC.
- CVE-2025-5399Medium
Due to a mistake in libcurl's WebSocket code, a malicious server can send a particularly crafted packet which makes libcurl get trapped in an endless busy-loop. There is no other way for the application to escape or exit this loop other than killing the thread/process. This might be used to DoS.
- CVE-2024-6197High
libcurl's ASN1 parser has this utf8asn1str() function used for parsing an ASN.1 UTF-8 string. It can detect an invalid field and return error. Unfortunately, when doing so it also invokes `free()` on a 4 byte local stack buffer. Most modern malloc implementations detect this error and immediately abort.
- CVE-2026-92388Critical
When an FTP wildcard LIST operation fails, libcurl omits the restoration path meant for successful listings, leaving the write callback set to the internal listing parser and the write callback data pointing directly to the easy handle. Subsequent reuse of this handle triggers an immediate crash, and cloning it via curl_easy_duphandle() copies this corrupted state into the duplicate. If the original handle is subsequently freed, executing a transfer on the cloned handle causes a heap use-after-free read; alternatively, reusing the original or cloned handle while changing only CURLOPT_WRITEDATA results in type confusion.
- CVE-2026-19931Critical
A flaw in libcurl causes it to wrongly reuse an HTTP connection established for a given hostname using Negotiate authentication, when the initial request is made with empty credentials. This can cause user B's request to be sent over user A's previously authenticated connection.
Original NVD description (English source)
This flaw allows an attacker to insert cookies at will into a running program using libcurl, if the specific series of conditions are met. libcurl performs transfers. In its API, an application creates "easy handles" that are the individual handles for single transfers. libcurl provides a function call that duplicates en easy handle called [curl_easy_duphandle](https://curl.se/libcurl/c/curl_easy_duphandle.html). If a transfer has cookies enabled when the handle is duplicated, the cookie-enable state is also cloned - but without cloning the actual cookies. If the source handle did not read any cookies from a specific file on disk, the cloned version of the handle would instead store the file name as `none` (using the four ASCII letters, no quotes). Subsequent use of the cloned handle that does not explicitly set a source to load cookies from would then inadvertently load cookies from a file named `none` - if such a file exists and is readable in the current directory of the program using libcurl. And if using the correct file format of course.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

