Description
After a certificate error was overridden by the user, qutebrowser displays the URL as yellow (colors.statusbar.url.warn.fg). However, when the affected website was subsequently loaded again, the URL was mistakenly displayed as green (colors.statusbar.url.success_https). While the user already has seen a certificate error prompt at this point (or set content.ssl_strict to false which is not recommended), this could still provide a false sense of security.
Affected versions and patches
All versions of qutebrowser are believed to be affected, though versions before v0.11.x couldn't be tested.
The issue is fixed in qutebrowser v1.11.1 (pending release) and v1.12.0 (unreleased). Backported patches for older versions are available, but no further releases are planned:
(commits are referring to qutebrowser/qutebrowser on GitHub - the second commit adds a testcase)
Timeline
- 2020-05-02: I (@The-Compiler) discovered the issue while working on an unrelated bugfix.
- 2020-05-02: Various other projects with similar issues (Falkon, eric6 Web Browser) were notified via their bugtrackers.
- 2020-05-06: CVE assigned by GitHub
- 2020-05-07: v1.11.1 released containing the fix
Mitigation
If you are unable to upgrade:
- Treat any host with a certificate exception as insecure, ignoring the URL color
- Or set
content.ssl_strict to True (instead of 'ask'), preventing certificate exceptions
References
Contact
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please email security@qutebrowser.org.
The-Compiler Analyst
Description
After a certificate error was overridden by the user, qutebrowser displays the URL as yellow (
colors.statusbar.url.warn.fg). However, when the affected website was subsequently loaded again, the URL was mistakenly displayed as green (colors.statusbar.url.success_https). While the user already has seen a certificate error prompt at this point (or setcontent.ssl_stricttofalsewhich is not recommended), this could still provide a false sense of security.Affected versions and patches
All versions of qutebrowser are believed to be affected, though versions before v0.11.x couldn't be tested.
The issue is fixed in qutebrowser v1.11.1 (pending release) and v1.12.0 (unreleased). Backported patches for older versions are available, but no further releases are planned:
(commits are referring to qutebrowser/qutebrowser on GitHub - the second commit adds a testcase)
Timeline
Mitigation
If you are unable to upgrade:
content.ssl_stricttoTrue(instead of'ask'), preventing certificate exceptionsReferences
Contact
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please email security@qutebrowser.org.