CVE-2026-48856

Summary

Sensitive Data Exposure vulnerability in Erlang OTP inets (httpc_response module) allows Retrieve Embedded Sensitive Data.

The httpc client forwards the Authorization and Proxy-Authorization request headers to redirect targets without checking whether the redirect crosses an origin boundary. httpc_response:redirect/2 constructs the redirected request by updating only the host field of the header record; all other fields (including authorization and proxy_authorization) are copied verbatim. The redirect target host is never compared against the original host.

autoredirect defaults to true, so this affects all httpc callers that do not explicitly disable automatic redirects.

An attacker who controls a server that the victim contacts via httpc can issue a cross-origin 3xx redirect to a server they also control. The Authorization header (including Basic credentials derived from URL userinfo via httpc_request:handle_user_info/2) is forwarded to the redirect target, allowing credential theft. The same applies to the Proxy-Authorization header.

This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/inets/src/http_client/httpc_response.erl.

This issue affects OTP from 17.0 before 29.0.2, 28.5.0.2 and 27.3.4.13 corresponding to inets from 5.10 before 9.7.1, 9.6.2.2 and 9.3.2.6.

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
ErlangOTP5.10 < *affected
ErlangOTP17.0 < *affected
ErlangOTP84adefa331c4159d432d22840663c38f155cd4c1 < 688d748d6f7a6a06b13b662a1d3de8af97079612affected

Weaknesses

  • CWE-601: CWE-601 URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect')

Workarounds

  • Set {autoredirect, false} in the httpc:request/4 options and handle redirects manually, stripping the Authorization header when the redirect crosses an origin boundary.
  • Ensure that httpc is only used to contact trusted servers that will not issue cross-origin redirects.

ADP Enrichment

CISA ADP Vulnrichment

  • SSVC:
  • Exploitation: none
    • Automatable: no
    • Technical Impact: partial

References