CVE-2011-0581 in ColdFusion
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple CRLF injection vulnerabilities in Adobe ColdFusion 8.0 through 9.0.1 allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary HTTP headers and conduct HTTP response splitting attacks via unspecified tags.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/14/2025
Adobe ColdFusion versions 8.0 through 9.0.1 contain multiple CRLF injection vulnerabilities that represent a critical security flaw in the application server's handling of HTTP headers. These vulnerabilities fall under CWE-113, which specifically addresses improper neutralization of CRLF characters within HTTP headers, making them susceptible to HTTP response splitting attacks. The flaw exists in unspecified tags within the ColdFusion runtime environment, allowing remote attackers to inject arbitrary HTTP headers through carefully crafted input that contains carriage return line feed sequences. This vulnerability enables attackers to manipulate the HTTP response sent by the server, potentially leading to various malicious activities including session hijacking, cross-site scripting attacks, and cache poisoning.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and sanitization within ColdFusion's processing of user-supplied data. When ColdFusion processes requests containing CRLF characters in parameters or tags, the system fails to properly escape or remove these control characters before incorporating them into HTTP headers. This oversight creates a pathway for attackers to inject malicious headers that can alter the server's response behavior. The impact extends beyond simple header injection, as HTTP response splitting allows attackers to inject multiple HTTP responses into a single connection, potentially enabling them to bypass security controls and manipulate user sessions. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it can be exploited through various input vectors within the ColdFusion application framework, making it difficult to fully mitigate without comprehensive patching.
The operational impact of CVE-2011-0581 is severe and multifaceted, affecting organizations that rely on ColdFusion for web application delivery. Attackers leveraging this vulnerability can perform session fixation attacks, redirect users to malicious websites, or inject content that appears to originate from the legitimate web server. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1190 (Exploit Public-Facing Application) and T1566 (Phishing) techniques, as it enables the execution of man-in-the-middle attacks and the delivery of malicious content through compromised web responses. Organizations may experience unauthorized access to sensitive data, disruption of services, and potential compromise of entire web application infrastructures. The vulnerability also poses risks to web application firewalls and security monitoring systems that rely on predictable HTTP response formats, as the injected headers can cause security controls to misinterpret or fail to detect malicious activity.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate patching of affected ColdFusion installations to the latest security releases provided by Adobe. Organizations should implement comprehensive input validation at all application layers, including the implementation of strict character filtering to remove or escape CRLF sequences from user-supplied data. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls and HTTP header sanitization rules can provide additional defense-in-depth measures. Security teams should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of affected ColdFusion applications within their environment and ensure that all input processing points are properly secured. Regular security monitoring should be implemented to detect potential exploitation attempts, and access controls should be reviewed to limit the impact of any successful attacks. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and following secure coding practices that prevent similar issues in custom application development.