Affected versions: FreeBSD 14

📖 ~4 min read  •  Source: FreeBSD VuXML

VuXML topic: py-httpie — exposure of sensitive information vulnerabilities

Related CVEs: CVE-2022-0430 CVE-2022-24737

Upstream summary: Glyph reports: HTTPie is a command-line HTTP client. HTTPie has the practical concept of sessions, which help users to persistently store some of the state that belongs to the outgoing requests and incoming responses on the disk for further usage. Before 3.1.0, HTTPie didn't distinguish between cookies and hosts they belonged. This behavior resulted in the exposure of some cookies when there are redirects originating from the actual host to a third party website. Users are ad

Table of contents
  1. Symptom & Impact
  2. Environment & Reproduction
  3. Root Cause Analysis
  4. Quick Triage
  5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
  6. Solution – Primary Fix
  7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
  8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
  9. Rollback Plan
  10. Prevention & Hardening
  11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
  12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Nothing visibly changes on a FreeBSD 14 host until py39-httpie is next invoked: it runs, exits and leaves no daemon behind, so there is no restart loop or service log to watch. Exposure is per-invocation, and the invocations that matter are the unattended ones — cron jobs, backup and deployment scripts, CI runners, and anything passing attacker-influenced input such as a remote URL, a supplied archive or an untrusted filename. Where py39-httpie is run under sudo or from a privileged job, the same flaw becomes local privilege escalation. py39-httpie ships command-line programs that run when invoked and then exit, so there is no service to restart — service(8) and /var/log/messages have nothing to act on; only the next invocation matters.

Environment & Reproduction

Reproduction targets FreeBSD 14. Confirm release, installed package, and capture baseline state:

freebsd-version -kru
uname -a
pkg info py39-httpie
pkg query "%n-%v" py39-httpie
pkg audit -F
service -e

Exercise the workload that uses py39-httpie while collecting:

tail -200 /var/log/messages
dmesg -a | tail -200
tail -200 /var/log/pkg.log

Root Cause Analysis

Root cause is tracked at FreeBSD VuXML. The FreeBSD ports security team shipped a corrective py39-httpie port revision; hosts on an outdated build remain exposed. Correlate package logs with system logs and kernel state to isolate the change that triggered the failure mode:

tail -500 /var/log/pkg.log
tail -500 /var/log/messages
sysctl kern.lastpid
sysctl kern.osreldate     # numeric __FreeBSD_version, e.g. 1400097

Quick Triage

Run these checks on FreeBSD 14 to confirm the failure mode and current state of py39-httpie:

pkg version -v py39-httpie                # installed vs available version
pkg audit py39-httpie                     # advisory match for this package
tail -100 /var/log/messages
dmesg -a | tail -100
kldstat                              # kernel module state (for kernel/driver pkgs)
pfctl -sr 2>/dev/null || ipfw list   # only if pf/ipfw is enabled
# e.g. bind918→named, php83→php-fpm), check it:
pkg query '%Fp' py39-httpie | sed -n 's|.*/etc/rc\.d/||p'  # FreeBSD: the REAL service name(s) = basename of the rc.d script (bind918 -> named, postgresql16-server -> postgresql, apache24 -> apache24)
pkg query '%b' py39-httpie  # FreeBSD: shared libraries PROVIDED by py39-httpie. Non-empty here + no rc.d script = it is a library: patch it, then restart its consumers

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

  1. List enabled services (only relevant if the package provides one).

    service -e
  2. Follow live logs.

    tail -F /var/log/messages
    dmesg
  3. Validate firewall rules (skip if neither pf nor ipfw is enabled).

    pfctl -sr -v 2>/dev/null || ipfw show
  4. Check package integrity for py39-httpie.

    pkg check -B py39-httpie
    pkg check -d py39-httpie    # verify shared-library deps
  5. Reinstall py39-httpie if integrity check fails.

    pkg install -fy py39-httpie
  6. Correlate findings with /var/log/pkg.log and FreeBSD VuXML to pin the commit that introduced the regression.

Solution – Primary Fix

Install the corrective py39-httpie port revision referenced by FreeBSD VuXML:

sudo pkg update
sudo pkg upgrade py39-httpie              # or: sudo pkg upgrade -y for the whole system
pkg audit py39-httpie                    # confirm no remaining advisory for this package

For ports-tree builders (FreeBSD 13.x and earlier used portsnap; on FreeBSD 14+ the ports tree is fetched with Git):

# FreeBSD 14+ (portsnap was removed):
sudo pkg install -y git-lite
sudo git clone --depth 1 https://git.FreeBSD.org/ports.git /usr/ports
# FreeBSD 13.x and earlier:
# sudo portsnap fetch update
cd /usr/ports/<category>/py39-httpie
sudo make deinstall reinstall clean

Reboot only if the package ships a kernel module or replaces a shared library used by long-running daemons.

Need help rolling this patch across a FreeBSD fleet? Our IT Solutions & Services team manages FreeBSD jail/bhyve patch windows. Get in touch for a free consultation.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

If the primary fix is not viable, choose from these alternatives:

  • Lock the package until the fix is vetted:

    sudo pkg lock py39-httpie
  • Downgrade to a known-good revision. pkg install pkgname-VERSION is not a real downgrade syntax — fetch a specific build instead:

    # 1. Discover available versions across configured repos:
    pkg search -e py39-httpie
    pkg rquery -r FreeBSD-quarterly '%n-%v' py39-httpie
    # 2. Install from a specific saved .pkg file:
    sudo pkg add -f /path/to/py39-httpie-<older-version>.pkg
    # 3. Or switch the host repo to the quarterly branch (see snippet below) and:
    sudo pkg upgrade -fr FreeBSD-quarterly py39-httpie
  • Switch the pkg repository between quarterly and latest by editing /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf:

    FreeBSD: {
      url: "pkg+https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/quarterly",
      mirror_type: "srv",
      signature_type: "fingerprints",
      fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkg",
      enabled: yes
    }
  • Isolate the affected service in a jail with stricter firewall rules:

    iocage create -n py39-httpie-jail -r 14.1-RELEASE
    iocage set allow_raw_sockets=0 py39-httpie-jail
    # or with Bastille:
    bastille create py39-httpie-jail 14.1-RELEASE 10.0.0.10
  • Replace the service with a vendored static build for the period between exposure detection and full rollout.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

All of these should pass after the fix:

pkg info py39-httpie                # shows the expected fixed version
pkg audit py39-httpie               # no advisory for this package (exit code 0)
tail -50 /var/log/messages   # no new errors after upgrade
# If py39-httpie ships a service, confirm it is running under its rc.d name:

The conditions described in the advisory must no longer be reported for py39-httpie across two consecutive runs.

Rollback Plan

Capture state before any change (only ZFS root has boot environments — UFS hosts skip bectl):

pkg query "%n-%v" > /root/pkg-pre.txt
# ZFS-on-root only:
sudo bectl create pre-py39-httpie-patch

To revert if the upgrade is bad, reinstall the previously saved .pkg file:

sudo pkg add -f /var/cache/pkg/py39-httpie-<previous-version>.pkg
# Or activate the pre-patch boot environment and reboot (ZFS-on-root only):
sudo bectl activate pre-py39-httpie-patch
sudo shutdown -r now

For kernel/loader changes on a UFS host, boot the previous kernel from the loader prompt (press 3 at the menu, then boot kernel.old).

Prevention & Hardening

Prevent recurrence on FreeBSD 14 hosts running py39-httpie:

  • Enable the daily security pkg audit in /etc/periodic.conf:

    daily_status_security_pkgaudit_enable="YES"
  • Subscribe to freebsd-security-notifications at lists.freebsd.org.

  • Mirror through a local pkg repository managed by poudriere:

    poudriere jail -c -j 14amd64 -v 14.1-RELEASE
    poudriere ports -c -p default
    poudriere bulk -j 14amd64 -p default <category>/py39-httpie
  • Version-pin sensitive packages:

    sudo pkg lock py39-httpie
  • Take an automatic ZFS boot-environment snapshot before every upgrade (ZFS root only):

    sudo bectl create pre-upgrade-$(date +%Y%m%d)
  • Monitor file integrity (create a baseline, verify against it later):

    # Create a baseline (use -c; target /usr/local/etc, /etc, /boot — NOT /):
    sudo mtree -c -K sha256digest -p /usr/local/etc > /var/db/usr-local-etc.mtree
    sudo mtree -c -K sha256digest -p /etc          > /var/db/etc.mtree
    # Verify later:
    sudo mtree -p /usr/local/etc < /var/db/usr-local-etc.mtree
    # Or with AIDE for a richer ruleset:
    sudo pkg install -y aide && sudo aide --init && sudo aide --check
  • Harden jails with allow.* tunables in /etc/jail.conf:

    py39-httpie_jail {
      allow.raw_sockets = 0;
      allow.sysvipc    = 0;
      allow.mount      = 0;
      allow.chflags    = 0;
    }

Issues that commonly surface alongside a py39-httpie update: pkg lock contention, mismatched ABI after kernel/userland skew, pf rule drift, and stale shared-library references after upgrade. Triage with:

freebsd-version -kru
uname -K
pkg check -d
pfctl -sr

View all freebsd-14 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

Primary reference: FreeBSD VuXML. Useful manual pages on FreeBSD 14:

man pkg
man freebsd-update
man pfctl
man ipfw
man bectl
man periodic.conf

Other resources: the FreeBSD Handbook, the FreeBSD Security Advisories at security.freebsd.org, and the /usr/ports/UPDATING file for port-specific notes implicated in this advisory.