SOC status:Duty analyst on shift

UK Cyber Defence
VulnerabilityAnalyzed

CVE-2026-12064

The tool layer incorrectly infers the URL scheme, which erroneously bypasses the initialization of critical SSH security options like CURLOPT_SSH_HOST_PUBLIC_KEY_SHA256 and CURLOPT_SSH_KNOWNHOSTS.

HIGH 7.5EPSS 0.40%

Does this matter?

High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.40%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.

Description

When a user invokes curl using a schemeless URL combined with `--proto-default` sftp (or scp), a disconnect occurs between the tool layer and libcurl. The tool layer incorrectly infers the URL scheme, which erroneously bypasses the initialization of critical SSH security options like CURLOPT_SSH_HOST_PUBLIC_KEY_SHA256 and CURLOPT_SSH_KNOWNHOSTS. Conversely, the libcurl runtime successfully honors CURLOPT_DEFAULT_PROTOCOL and establishes the connection via SFTP/SCP as specified. Because the tool layer skipped the security configuration, these SSH host verification options are silently omitted, causing curl to connect to an unverified SSH remote host without throwing an error.

CVSS 3.1
7.5 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
EPSS
0.40% probability · 34th percentile
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness
CWE-295
Affected
haxx/curl
Source
2499f714-1537-4658-8207-48ae4bb9eae9

References

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.