Member-only story
🚨CRLF Injection: Guide to Finding & Exploiting Vulnerabilities
Free Article Link
Hello, cybersecurity enthusiasts! 👋 In this comprehensive guide, we’re diving deep into CRLF Injection — what it is, why it’s dangerous, and how to find and exploit it like a pro. Whether you’re a bug bounty hunter, a penetration tester, or a developer, this is a must-read! Let’s get started!
🎯 What is CRLF Injection?
CRLF (Carriage Return Line Feed) Injection is a web security vulnerability that allows attackers to inject Carriage Return (CR) and Line Feed (LF) characters into web application inputs. These characters are used to signify the end of a line in text-based protocols such as HTTP.
🔍 Why is it Dangerous?
CRLF injection can be used for:
- HTTP Response Splitting: Split a single HTTP response into two, allowing attackers to control the second response (e.g., malicious redirects or XSS).
- Log Poisoning: Inject fake entries into server logs to cover tracks or trigger false alerts.
- XSS Escalation: Bypass sanitization by injecting HTML/JavaScript via headers.
- Email Header Injection: Manipulate email headers (e.g., BCC attackers in password reset emails).
🔑 CRLF Breakdown: What are CR and LF?
- CR (Carriage Return): ASCII code
13
or\r
- LF (Line Feed): ASCII code
10
or\n
Together, they form a new line (\r\n
) in many operating systems and protocols. In the context of HTTP, they’re used to separate headers from the body.
đź“š CRLF 101: Breaking Down the Basics
🔍 How CRLF Works in HTTP Headers
A normal HTTP response looks like this:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html
Set-Cookie: session=abc123