CVE-2021-38507

Mozilla: Opportunistic Encryption in HTTP2 could be used to bypass the Same-Origin-Policy on services hosted on other ports

Published Dec 8, 2021 CVSS 3.1 · 6.5 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
The Opportunistic Encryption feature of HTTP2 (RFC 8164) allows a connection to be transparently upgraded to TLS while retaining the visual properties of an HTTP connection, including being same-origin with unencrypted connections on port 80. However, if a second encrypted port on the same IP address (e.g. port 8443) did not opt-in to opportunistic encryption; a network attacker could forward a connection from the browser to port 443 to port 8443, causing the browser to treat the content of port 8443 as same-origin with HTTP. This was resolved by disabling the Opportunistic Encryption feature, which had low usage. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 94, Thunderbird < 91.3, and Firefox ESR < 91.3.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

Source ID Title
Debian DLA Debian DLA DLA-2863-1 firefox-esr security update
Debian DLA Debian DLA DLA-2874-1 thunderbird security update
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-5026-1 firefox-esr security update
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-5034-1 thunderbird security update
EUVD EUVD EUVD-2021-24959 The Opportunistic Encryption feature of HTTP2 (RFC 8164) allows a connection to be transparently upgraded to TLS while retaining the visual properties of an HTTP connection, including being same-origin with unencrypted connections on port 80. However, if a second encrypted port on the same IP address (e.g. port 8443) did not opt-in to opportunistic encryption; a network attacker could forward a connection from the browser to port 443 to port 8443, causing the browser to treat the content of port 8443 as same-origin with HTTP. This was resolved by disabling the Opportunistic Encryption feature, which had low usage. This vulnerability affects Firefox < 94, Thunderbird < 91.3, and Firefox ESR < 91.3.
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-5131-1 Firefox vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-5152-1 Thunderbird vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-5248-1 Thunderbird vulnerabilities
History

No history.

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
mozilla
Published
Updated
Aug 4, 2024, 1:44 AM
Reserved
Aug 10, 2021, 12:00 AM
Status
Modified
Published
Dec 8, 2021, 10:15 PM
Modified
Jun 17, 2026, 4:02 AM
Severity
Important
Public date
Nov 2, 2021, 12:00 AM