CVE-2014-6061 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) vulnerability in symfony/http-foundation. A fix is available for symfony/http-foundation — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Symfony has a security issue when parsing the Authorization header
Real-World Exposure
symfony/http-foundation🐘symfony/http-foundation🐘symfony/http-foundation🐘symfony/symfony🐘symfony/symfony🐘symfony/symfonyReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
All 2.0.X, 2.1.X, 2.2.X, 2.3.X, 2.4.X, and 2.5.X versions of the Symfony HttpFoundation component are affected by this security issue.
This issue has been fixed in Symfony 2.3.19, 2.4.9, and 2.5.4. Note that no fixes are provided for Symfony 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 as they are not maintained anymore.
Description
When an application uses an HTTP basic or digest authentication, Symfony does not parse the Authorization header properly, which could be exploited in some server setups (no exploits have been demonstrated though.)
Resolution
The parsing of the Authorization header has been fixed to comply to the HTTP specification.
The patch for this issue is available here: https://github.com/symfony/symfony/pull/11829
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | symfony/http-foundation | ≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.3.19 | 2.3.19composer require symfony/http-foundation:^2.3.19 |
| 🐘Packagist | symfony/http-foundation | ≥ 2.4.0&&< 2.4.9 | 2.4.9composer require symfony/http-foundation:^2.4.9 |
| 🐘Packagist | symfony/http-foundation | ≥ 2.5.0&&< 2.5.4 | 2.5.4composer require symfony/http-foundation:^2.5.4 |
| 🐘Packagist | symfony/symfony | ≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.3.19 | 2.3.19composer require symfony/symfony:^2.3.19 |
| 🐘Packagist | symfony/symfony | ≥ 2.4.0&&< 2.4.9 | 2.4.9composer require symfony/symfony:^2.4.9 |
| 🐘Packagist | symfony/symfony | ≥ 2.5.0&&< 2.5.4 | 2.5.4composer require symfony/symfony:^2.5.4 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for symfony/http-foundation, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update symfony/http-foundation to 2.3.19 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2014-6061 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2014-6061 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2014-6061. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2014-6061 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2014-6061 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.