HTTP Response Splitting Vulnerability

HTTP response splitting is detected when:

• Data enters a web application via an untrusted source.
• The data is included in an HTTP response header sent to a web user without being validated for malicious characters.

This web server allows attacker to set arbitrary headers, take control of the body, or break the response into two or more separate responses.

Example

        String author = request.getParameter(AUTHOR_PARAM);
            ...
            Cookie cookie = new Cookie("author", author);
                cookie.setMaxAge(cookieExpiration);
                response.addCookie(cookie);

    

Impact

The impact include:-

• Cross-User Defacement
• Cache Poisoning
• Cross-Site Scripting
• Page Hijacking

Mitigation / Precaution

This vulnerability can be avoided by:-

• Using URL-encoded strings before inclusion into HTTP headers. This include Location or Set-Cookie.
• Use modern Java EE application servers.

Written by

Sooraj V Nair

Cyber Security Engineer