CRLF injection in httplib2
Impact
Attacker controlling unescaped part of uri for httplib2.Http.request() could change request headers and body, send additional hidden requests to same server.
Impacts software that uses httplib2 with uri constructed by string concatenation, as opposed to proper urllib building with escaping.
Patches
Problem has been fixed in 0.18.0 Space, CR, LF characters are now quoted before any use. This solution should not impact any valid usage of httplib2 library, that is uri constructed by urllib.
Workarounds
Create URI with urllib.parse family functions: urlencode, urlunsplit.
user_input = " HTTP/1.1\r\ninjected: attack\r\nignore-http:"
-uri = "https://api.server/?q={}".format(user_input)
+uri = urllib.parse.urlunsplit(("https", "api.server", "/v1", urllib.parse.urlencode({"q": user_input}), ""))
http.request(uri)References
https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/93.html https://docs.python.org/3/library/urllib.parse.html
Thanks to Recar https://github.com/Ciyfly for finding vulnerability and discrete notification.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Open an issue in httplib2
- Email current maintainer at 2020-05
Affected software
Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.
| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Python (PyPI) | httplib2 | < 0.18.0 | 0.18.0 |
References
- https://github.com/httplib2/httplib2/commit/a1457cc31f3206cf691d11d2bf34e98865873e9e
- https://github.com/httplib2/httplib2/security/advisories/GHSA-gg84-qgv9-w4pq
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rc9eff9572946142b657c900fe63ea4bbd3535911e8d4ce4d08fe4b89@%3Ccommits.allura.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/06/msg00000.html
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r23711190c2e98152cb6f216b95090d5eeb978543bb7e0bad22ce47fc@%3Cissues.beam.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/IXCX2AWROGWGY5GXR7VN3BKF34A2FO6J/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PZJ3D6JSM7CFZESZZKGUW2VX55BOSOXI/
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rad8872fc99f670958c2774e2bf84ee32a3a0562a0c787465cf3dfa23@%3Cissues.beam.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r69a462e690b5f2c3d418a288a2c98ae764d58587bd0b5d6ab141f25f@%3Cissues.beam.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r4d35dac106fab979f0db75a07fc4e320ad848b722103e79667ff99e1@%3Cissues.beam.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r7f364000066748299b331b615ba51c62f55ab5b201ddce9a22d98202@%3Cissues.beam.apache.org%3E
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-11078
- https://github.com/httplib2/httplib2
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/httplib2/PYSEC-2020-46.yaml
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/IXCX2AWROGWGY5GXR7VN3BKF34A2FO6J
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PZJ3D6JSM7CFZESZZKGUW2VX55BOSOXI
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-93- Platform
- Python (PyPI)
- Package
httplib2- Disclosed
- 20.05.2020
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 15:17
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2020-46 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-gg84-qgv9-w4pq - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: httplib2
All published vulnerabilities of this package (Python (PyPI)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
- Total entries
- 4
- First → latest
- 01.2014 07.2026
- Without a fix
- 0
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- High 2
- Medium 2
Disclosures per year
- 2017: 0
- 2018: 0
- 2019: 0
- 2020: 1
- 2021: 1
- 2022: 0
- 2023: 0
- 2024: 0
- 2025: 0
- 2026: 1
earlier: 1
-
CRLF injection in httplib2 this entry
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