CVE-2022-42916 Security feature bypass in n/a

High 7.5 Published 29 Oct 2022 Updated 14 Oct 2026

Attackers can bypass HSTS protections in curl by using IDN characters, forcing insecure HTTP connections instead of HTTPS.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2022-42916?

CVE-2022-42916 is a high-severity vulnerability in Apple Macos, published on 29 Oct 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In curl before 7.86.0, the HSTS check could be bypassed to trick it into staying with HTTP. Using its HSTS support, curl can be instructed to use HTTPS directly (instead of using an insecure cleartext HTTP step) even when HTTP is provided in the URL. This mechanism could be bypassed if the host name in the given URL uses IDN characters that get replaced with ASCII counterparts as part of the IDN conversion, e.g., using the character UTF-8 U+3002 (IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP) instead of the common ASCII full stop of U+002E (.). The earliest affected version is 7.77.0 2021-05-26.

Weakness: CWE-319

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-42916?

It affects 4 products.

Products include Apple Macos, Fedoraproject Fedora, Haxx Curl, Splunk Universal Forwarder.

How do I fix CVE-2022-42916?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Is CVE-2022-42916 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-42916 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Apple Macos vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2022-42916, AZL-11369, AZL-38722, CLEANSTART-2026-TV45002, CURL-CVE-2022-42916, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-42916 and 5 more.