Is curl -u username:password http://example.com
secure?
If not, can you give a brief explanation of how someone could obtain your password?
It is unsafe, because cURL defaults to basic authentication where HTTP protocol sends your password in clear text. When you specify the username:password
string, it gets converted to a BASE64 string in the HTTP header:
GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0
Accept: text/html
Authorization: Basic dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=
Anyone able to intercept your HTTP traffic (your provider, anyone accessing the same wireless AP as you etc) will be able to recover the password by simply using an online BASE64 converter.
HTTPS protocol will make things better by establishing an encrypted connection before this header is sent, preventing the password from being revealed. However, this only applies if the user pays attention when asked to confirm unknown certificates, authorize security exceptions and so on.
Note that command arguments might be available for other users on the same machine to see, e.g. ps -ef
, /proc filesystem, in you bash history, and in your terminal log (thanks for @Lambert's comment noting this). cURL on some platforms attempts to hide the password so for example with ps -ef
you are likely to see blank space instead of a password. However, instead of passing the password as a command line argument, having cURL directly prompt for a password is better, as discussed on the cURL faq.
ps
, there's a period while it's starting up before that overwrite is performed where that content is vulnerable.
May 27, 2015 at 0:25
It is not secure. Command line parameters are visible to all users.
ps
command and the /proc
file system. If the command finishes quickly, the risk is reduced, but it is still there.
This could be done in a more safer way by using --netrc-file parameter.
For eg: vi /root/my-file
machine example.com
login USERNAME
password PASSWORD
Save and Close the file
curl --netrc-file /root/my-file http://example.com
It is insecure when using HTTP scheme. To make it secure, you should use HTTPS.
To hide password from appearing in command history, only provide user name. Curl will prompt for password, if not provided in command.
Short answer is no... but....
If there are no server side options you can harden the security.
None of these are any less secure than a browser using HTTP.
Using a username and password in the command line with curl
like this: curl -u username:password [https://www.wheelofnames.fun/][1]
is generally considered insecure. The reason is that command-line arguments are often logged, and this could lead to exposing sensitive information (i.e., the password) to anyone with access to those logs.
Here are some reasons why this approach is insecure:
Command-line history: Command-line history keeps a record of the commands you enter, and it may include your username and password. This poses a security risk, especially if other users have access to your account.
Process listing: On some systems, running processes can be listed, and the username and password might be visible in the process list.
Logs: Various system logs could inadvertently record the command-line arguments, potentially exposing the password.
A more secure approach is to use the -u
option without specifying the password directly in the command. When you use -u username
, curl
will prompt you to enter the password securely without displaying it on the screen. For example:
curl -u username [https://www.wheelofnames.fun/][1]
After running this command, curl
will prompt you to enter the password, providing a more secure way to pass credentials. Keep in mind that even this method may still leave traces in certain log files, so exercise caution when handling sensitive information.
For even more robust security, consider using environment variables or configuration files to store your credentials securely, and then reference those variables or files within your scripts or commands. This way, you can keep your credentials separate from your code and prevent accidental exposures.
ps -ef
to see which processes are running. When yourcurl -u username:password http://example.com
appear in the list, your destination, username and password are compromised.