CVE-2026-12064 — proto-default skips SSH verification

Description (CNA)

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.

Affected (CNA)

Vendor / product	Versions
curl / curl	affected 7.81.0 before 8.14.2; affected 8.15.0 before 8.16.1; affected 8.17.0 before 8.20.1
curl / curl	affected 18270893abdb19f0ca170c118f8a2847dbd304be before ab3bb8cd8be8f9d4acb97da0418abc279182041e
curl / curl	affected 8.20.0; affected 8.19.0; affected 8.18.0; affected 8.17.0; affected 8.16.0; affected 8.15.0; affected 8.14.1; affected 8.14.0; affected 8.13.0; affected 8.12.1; affected 8.12.0; affected 8.11.1; affected 8.11.0; affected 8.10.1; affected 8.10.0; affected 8.9.1; affected 8.9.0; affected 8.8.0; affected 8.7.1; affected 8.7.0; affected 8.6.0; affected 8.5.0; affected 8.4.0; affected 8.3.0; affected 8.2.1; affected 8.2.0; affected 8.1.2; affected 8.1.1; affected 8.1.0; affected 8.0.1; affected 8.0.0; affected 7.88.1; affected 7.88.0; affected 7.87.0; affected 7.86.0; affected 7.85.0; affected 7.84.0; affected 7.83.1; affected 7.83.0; affected 7.82.0; affected 7.81.0

CWE

CWE-297

References

ADP enrichment

CISA-ADP

No English description supplied.

https://hackerone.com/reports/3797526