# CVE-2025-10966: missing SFTP host verification with wolfSSH

> Attackers can perform man-in-the-middle attacks on SFTP connections using the wolfSSH backend due to missing host verification.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 7 Nov 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2025-10966, AZL-69748, AZL-69766, BELL-CVE-2025-10966, CURL-CVE-2025-10966, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-10966, ECHO-84eb-3f66-73a1, GHSA-5gff-h54g-38r2, JLSEC-2026-424, MINI-wjwx-mxp5-69f6, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-10966, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-10966

## What is CVE-2025-10966?

CVE-2025-10966 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Haxx Curl, published on 7 Nov 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

curl's code for managing SSH connections when SFTP was done using the wolfSSH
powered backend was flawed and missed host verification mechanisms.

This prevents curl from detecting MITM attackers and more.

Weakness: CWE-322 (Key Exchange without Entity Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-10966?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Haxx Curl.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-10966?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2025-10966 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-10966 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-2025-10966 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-10966 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Haxx Curl, published on 7 Nov 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-10966 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-2025-10966/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-10966/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-10966
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-10966
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-10966

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-10966/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.