// For flags

CVE-2021-38507

Mozilla: Opportunistic Encryption in HTTP2 could be used to bypass the Same-Origin-Policy on services hosted on other ports

Severity Score

6.5
*CVSS v3.1

Exploit Likelihood

*EPSS

Affected Versions

*CPE

Public Exploits

0
*Multiple Sources

Exploited in Wild

-
*KEV

Decision

-
*SSVC
Descriptions

The Opportunistic Encryption feature of HTTP2 (RFC 8164) allows a connection to be transparently upgraded to TLS while retaining the visual properties of an HTTP connection, including being same-origin with unencrypted connections on port 80. However, if a second encrypted port on the same IP address (e.g. port 8443) did not opt-in to opportunistic encryption; a network attacker could forward a connection from the browser to port 443 to port 8443, causing the browser to treat the content of port 8443 as same-origin with HTTP. This was resolved by disabling the Opportunistic Encryption feature, which had low usage. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 94, Thunderbird < 91.3, and Firefox ESR < 91.3.

La funcionalidad Opportunistic Encryption de HTTP2 (RFC 8164) permite que una conexión sea actualizada transparentemente a TLS mientras conserva las propiedades visuales de una conexión HTTP, incluyendo el mismo origen con conexiones no cifradas en el puerto 80. Sin embargo, si un segundo puerto cifrado en la misma dirección IP (por ejemplo, el puerto 8443) no optaba por el cifrado oportunista, un atacante de la red podía reenviar una conexión del navegador al puerto 443 al puerto 8443, causando que el navegador tratara el contenido del puerto 8443 como del mismo origen con HTTP. Esto fue resuelto deshabilitando la funcionalidad Opportunistic Encryption, que tenía un uso reducido. Esta vulnerabilidad afecta a Firefox versiones anteriores a 94, Thunderbird versiones anteriores a 91.3 y Firefox ESR versiones anteriores a 91.3

The Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory describes this flaw as:

The Opportunistic Encryption feature of HTTP2 (RFC 8164) allows a connection to be transparently upgraded to TLS while retaining the visual properties of an HTTP connection, including being same-origin with unencrypted connections on port 80. However, if a second encrypted port on the same IP address (e.g. Port 8443) did not opt-in to opportunistic encryption; a network attacker could forward a connection from the browser to port 443 to port 8443, causing the browser to treat the content of port 8443 as same-origin with HTTP. This was resolved by disabling the Opportunistic Encryption feature, which had low usage.

*Credits: N/A
CVSS Scores
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Medium
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Partial
Availability
None
* Common Vulnerability Scoring System
SSVC
  • Decision:-
Exploitation
-
Automatable
-
Tech. Impact
-
* Organization's Worst-case Scenario
Timeline
  • 2021-08-10 CVE Reserved
  • 2021-11-03 CVE Published
  • 2024-08-04 CVE Updated
  • 2024-08-23 EPSS Updated
  • ---------- Exploited in Wild
  • ---------- KEV Due Date
  • ---------- First Exploit
CWE
  • CWE-346: Origin Validation Error
  • CWE-829: Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere
CAPEC
Affected Vendors, Products, and Versions
Vendor Product Version Other Status
Vendor Product Version Other Status <-- --> Vendor Product Version Other Status
Mozilla
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Firefox
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< 94.0
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-
Affected
Mozilla
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Firefox Esr
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< 91.3.0
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-
Affected
Mozilla
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Thunderbird
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< 91.3.0
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-
Affected
Debian
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Debian Linux
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9.0
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-
Affected
Debian
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Debian Linux
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10.0
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-
Affected
Debian
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Debian Linux
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11.0
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-
Affected