# CVE-2019-5443: Code injection in curl

> An attacker can inject malicious code into a shared path that curl executes with the privileges of the invoking user, leading to privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 2 Jul 2019
- **Updated:** 14 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** CURL-CVE-2019-5443, GHSA-79v3-h2vf-vcg6

## What is CVE-2019-5443?

CVE-2019-5443 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in Haxx Curl, published on 2 Jul 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

A non-privileged user or program can put code and a config file in a known non-privileged path (under C:/usr/local/) that will make curl <= 7.65.1 automatically run the code (as an openssl "engine") on invocation. If that curl is invoked by a privileged user it can do anything it wants.

Weakness: CWE-427 (Uncontrolled Search Path Element), CWE-94 (Improper Control of Generation of Code)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-5443?

It affects 9 products.


Products: Haxx Curl, Netapp Oncommand Insight, Netapp Oncommand Unified Manager, Netapp Oncommand Workflow Automation, Netapp Snapcenter, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center, Oracle Http Server, Oracle Mysql Server, Oracle Oss Support Tools.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-5443?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2019-5443 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-5443 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Haxx Curl

- [CVE-2026-19931](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-19931/): Negotiate ambient user conn reuse (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-10536](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-10536/): HTTP/2 stream-dependency tree UAF (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-11856](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-11856/): cross-origin Digest auth state leak (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-8925](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-8925/): SASL double-free (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-9079](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-9079/): stale proxy password leak (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-5443 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-5443 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in Haxx Curl, published on 2 Jul 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-5443 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Haxx Curl. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5443/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5443/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-5443
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-5443
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-5443

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5443/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.