Cowrie versions prior to 2.9.0 contain a server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the emulated shell implementation of wget and curl. In the default emulated shell configuration, these command emulations perform real outbound HTTP requests to attacker-supplied destinations. Because no outbound request rate limiting was enforced, unauthenticated remote attackers could repeatedly invoke these commands to generate unbounded HTTP traffic toward arbitrary third-party targets, allowing the Cowrie honeypot to be abused as a denial-of-service amplification node and masking the attacker’s true source address behind the honeypot’s IP.
https://github.com/cowrie/cowrie/releases/tag/v2.9.0
https://github.com/cowrie/cowrie/pull/2800
Published: 2025-12-31
Updated: 2025-12-31
Base Score: 7.5
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Severity: High
Base Score: 8.3
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L
Severity: High
Base Score: 6.9
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:L
Severity: Medium
EPSS: 0.00102