WEBrick Toolkit up to 1.8.1 on Ruby HTTP Request /admin Content-Length/Transfer-Encoding request smuggling

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in WEBrick Toolkit up to 1.8.1 on Ruby. It has been classified as problematic. Affected is an unknown function of the file /admin of the component HTTP Request Handler. The manipulation of the argument Content-Length/Transfer-Encoding leads to request smuggling. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2024-47220. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in WEBrick Toolkit up to 1.8.1 on Ruby. This issue affects an unknown code block of the file /admin of the component HTTP Request Handler. The manipulation of the argument Content-Length/Transfer-Encoding with an unknown input leads to a request smuggling vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-444. The product acts as an intermediary HTTP agent (such as a proxy or firewall) in the data flow between two entities such as a client and server, but it does not interpret malformed HTTP requests or responses in ways that are consistent with how the messages will be processed by those entities that are at the ultimate destination. Impacted is integrity. The summary by CVE is:

An issue was discovered in the WEBrick toolkit through 1.8.1 for Ruby. It allows HTTP request smuggling by providing both a Content-Length header and a Transfer-Encoding header, e.g., "GET /admin HTTP/1.1\r\n" inside of a "POST /user HTTP/1.1\r\n" request. NOTE: the supplier's position is "Webrick should not be used in production."

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2024-47220 since 09/22/2024. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 210000 (Amazon Linux 2023 : ruby3.2, ruby3.2-bundled-gems, ruby3.2-default-gems (ALAS2023-2024-743)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Applying a patch is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (210000) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1439). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• SUSE Linux
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Ruby Gem

Name

• WEBrick Toolkit

Version

• 1.8.0
• 1.8.1

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CPE 2.2info

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Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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