`Cookie` HTTP header isn't stripped on cross-origin redirects
urllib3 doesn't treat the `Cookie` HTTP header special or provide any helpers for managing cookies over HTTP, that is the responsibility of the user. However, it is possible for a user to specify a `Cookie` header and unknowingly leak information via HTTP redirects to a different origin if that user doesn't disable redirects explicitly. Users **must** handle redirects themselves instead of relying on urllib3's automatic redirects to achieve safe processing of the `Cookie` header, thus we decided to strip the header by default in order to further protect users who aren't using the correct approach. ## Affected usages We believe the number of usages affected by this advisory is low. It requires all of the following to be true to be exploited: * Using an affected version of urllib3 (patched in v1.26.17 and v2.0.6) * Using the `Cookie` header on requests, which is mostly typical for impersonating a browser. * Not disabling HTTP redirects * Either not using HTTPS or for the origin server to redirect to a malicious origin. ## Remediation * Upgrading to at least urllib3 v1.26.17 or v2.0.6 * Disabling HTTP redirects using `redirects=False` when sending requests. * Not using the `Cookie` header.
describes (1)
Related CVEs.
| ID | severity | exploitable | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2023-43804US | high8.1 | Exploit | ||
urllib3 is a user-friendly HTTP client library for Python. urllib3 doesn't treat the `Cookie` HTTP header special or provide any helpers for managing cookies over HTTP, that is the… | ||||
references
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/urllib3/PYSEC-2023-192.yamlWEB
- https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3PACKAGE
- https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/commit/01220354d389cd05474713f8c982d05c9b17aafbWEB
- https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/commit/644124ecd0b6e417c527191f866daa05a5a2056dWEB
- https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/security/advisories/GHSA-v845-jxx5-vc9fWEB
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/10/msg00012.htmlWEB
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/12/msg00020.htmlWEB
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/5F5CUBAN5XMEBVBZPHFITBLMJV5FIJJ5WEB
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