Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-5545

Haxx Curl 7.10.6 – 8.20.0

Public PoC
Published
13 May 2026
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0041 34th percentile
Risk Priority 49 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2026-5545 is a medium-severity Insufficient Session Expiration (CWE-613) vulnerability in Haxx Curl. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Browser Session Hijacking (T1185); ranked at the 34th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-12 (Session Termination) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

libcurl might in some circumstances reuse the wrong connection when asked to do an authenticated HTTP(S) request after a Negotiate-authenticated one, when both use the same host. libcurl features a pool of recent connections so that subsequent requests can reuse…

more

an existing connection to avoid overhead. When reusing a connection a range of criteria must be met. Due to a logical error in the code, a request that was issued by an application could wrongfully reuse an existing connection to the same server that was authenticated using different credentials. An application that first uses Negotiate authentication to a server with `user1:password1` and then does another operation to the same server asking for any authentication method but for `user2:password2` (while the previous connection is still alive) - the second request gets confused and wrongly reuses the same connection and sends the new request over that connection thinking it uses a mix of user1's and user2's credentials when it is in fact still using the connection authenticated for user1...

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1185 Browser Session Hijacking Collection
Adversaries may take advantage of security vulnerabilities and inherent functionality in browser software to change content, modify user-behaviors, and intercept information as part of various browser session hijacking techniques.
T1550 Use Alternate Authentication Material Lateral Movement
Adversaries may use alternate authentication material, such as password hashes, Kerberos tickets, and application access tokens, in order to move laterally within an environment and bypass normal system access controls.
T1550.004 Web Session Cookie Lateral Movement
Adversaries can use stolen session cookies to authenticate to web applications and services.
T1563 Remote Service Session Hijacking Lateral Movement
Adversaries may take control of preexisting sessions with remote services to move laterally in an environment.
T1539 Steal Web Session Cookie Credential Access
An adversary may steal web application or service session cookies and use them to gain access to web applications or Internet services as an authenticated user without needing credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-15224Same product: Haxx Curl
CVE-2026-11856Same product: Haxx Curl
CVE-2026-7168Same product: Haxx Curl
CVE-2026-8927Same product: Haxx Curl
CVE-2025-13034Same product: Haxx Curl
CVE-2025-14524Same product: Haxx Curl
CVE-2026-3783Same product: Haxx Curl
CVE-2026-8458Same product: Haxx Curl
CVE-2026-9545Same product: Haxx Curl
CVE-2026-1965Same product: Haxx Curl

Affected Assets

haxx
curl
7.10.6 — 8.20.0

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-12 directly requires automatic session termination after a defined period, structurally preventing reuse of expired session identifiers.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-01 mostly match
prevents

Credential lifecycle management directly includes enforcing session expiration to prevent reuse.

PR.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

Authorization policy enforcement and review covers terminating stale sessions to limit access scope.

PR.AA-03 partial match
prevents

Authentication mechanisms can incorporate session timeout checks but do not inherently address expiration policy.

References