exploiting-http-request-smuggling

name	exploiting-http-request-smuggling
description	Detecting and exploiting HTTP request smuggling vulnerabilities caused by Content-Length and Transfer-Encoding parsing discrepancies between front-end and back-end servers. Use when working with exploiting http request smuggling.
domain	cybersecurity
tags	["penetration-testing","request-smuggling","http-desync","web-security","burpsuite","owasp"]
subdomain	web-application-security
version	1.0
author	oyi77
license	Apache-2.0
nist_csf	["PR.PS-01","ID.RA-01","PR.DS-10","DE.CM-01"]

Exploiting Http Request Smuggling

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for exploiting http request smuggling. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "exploiting http request smuggling"

• "Detecting and exploiting HTTP request smuggling vulnerabilities caused by Conten"

• During authorized penetration tests when the application sits behind a reverse proxy, load balancer, or CDN

• When testing infrastructure with multiple HTTP processors in the request chain (nginx + Apache, HAProxy + Gunicorn)

• For assessing applications for HTTP desynchronization vulnerabilities

• When other attack vectors are limited and you need to bypass front-end security controls

• During security assessments of multi-tier web architectures

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Authorization: Written penetration testing agreement explicitly covering request smuggling (high-risk test)
• Burp Suite Professional: With HTTP Request Smuggler extension (Turbo Intruder)
• smuggler.py: Automated HTTP request smuggling detection tool
• curl: Compiled with HTTP/1.1 support and manual chunked encoding
• Target architecture knowledge: Understanding of proxy/server chain (front-end and back-end)
• Caution: Request smuggling can affect other users' requests; test carefully

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def extract_iocs() -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}