cURL up to 8.17.0 Bearer Token redirect

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in cURL up to 8.17.0 and classified as problematic. This vulnerability affects unknown code of the component Bearer Token Handler. The manipulation leads to redirect. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2025-14524. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in cURL up to 8.17.0 and classified as problematic. This issue affects an unknown part of the component Bearer Token Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a redirect vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-601. A web application accepts a user-controlled input that specifies a link to an external site, and uses that link in a Redirect. This simplifies phishing attacks. Impacted is integrity. The summary by CVE is:

When an OAuth2 bearer token is used for an HTTP(S) transfer, and that transfer performs a cross-protocol redirect to a second URL that uses an IMAP, LDAP, POP3 or SMTP scheme, curl might wrongly pass on the bearer token to the new target host.

The advisory is shared at seclists.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-14524. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1204.001 for this issue.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 282306 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-14524), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 8.18.0 eliminates this vulnerability. The upgrade is hosted for download at curl.se. Applying the patch 1a822275d333dc6da6043497160fd is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (282306) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0030). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

• Amazon Linux 2
• Fedora Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• NetApp Data ONTAP
• Open Source cURL
• Tenable Security Nessus Network Monitor
• Meinberg LANTIME
• Open Source Notepad++
• IBM AIX

Productinfo

Type

• Network Utility Software

Name

• cURL

Version

• 8.0
• 8.1
• 8.2
• 8.3
• 8.4
• 8.5
• 8.6
• 8.7
• 8.8
• 8.9
• 8.10
• 8.11
• 8.12
• 8.13
• 8.14
• 8.15
• 8.16
• 8.17.0

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/curl/curl/

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Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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