HTTP header injection

HTTP

Persistence · Compression · HTTPS

Request methods

OPTIONS · GET · HEAD · POST · PUT · DELETE · TRACE · CONNECT · PATCH

Header fields

Cookie · ETag · Location · Referer

DNT · X-Forwarded-For

Status codes

301 Moved permanently

302 Found

303 See Other

403 Forbidden

404 Not Found

HTTP header injection is a general class of web application security vulnerability which occurs when Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) headers are dynamically generated based on user input. Header injection in HTTP responses can allow for HTTP response splitting, Session fixation via the Set-Cookie header, cross-site scripting (XSS), and malicious redirects attacks via the location header. HTTP header injection is a relatively new area for web-based attacks, and has primarily been pioneered by Amit Klein in his work on request/response smuggling/splitting.

Sources

• HTTP Response Smuggling
• HTTP Request Smuggling
• File Download Injection

Tools

• Wapiti Open Source Header, XSS, SQL and LDAP injection scanner