hunt-http-smugglinglisted
Install: claude install-skill elementalsouls/Claude-BugHunter
## 17. HTTP REQUEST SMUGGLING
> Lowest dup rate. $5K–$30K. PortSwigger research by James Kettle.
### CL.TE (Content-Length front, Transfer-Encoding back)
```http
POST / HTTP/1.1
Content-Length: 13
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
0
SMUGGLED
```
### Detection
```
1. Burp extension: HTTP Request Smuggler
2. Right-click request → Extensions → HTTP Request Smuggler → Smuggle probe
3. Manual timing: CL.TE probe + ~10s delay = backend waiting for rest of body
```
### Impact Chain
```
Poison next request → access admin as victim
Steal credentials → capture victim's session
Cache poisoning → stored XSS at scale
```
---
## Target-Suitability Matrix (2026 reality check)
The classic CL.TE / TE.CL payloads are NOT universally exploitable in 2026. Modern proxies are RFC 9112 strict by default. Fingerprint the front-end BEFORE investing time.
| Front-end | CL.TE | TE.CL | H2.CL | H2.TE | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Nginx ≥ 1.21** | NO | NO | partial (H2 ingress) | partial | RFC-strict; rejects CL+TE with HTTP 400. Verified locally on Nginx 1.27 — all 9 documented variants killed by front-end ([docs/verification/phase2h-smuggling-cachepoison.md](../../docs/verification/phase2h-smuggling-cachepoison.md)). |
| **Caddy 2.x** | NO | NO | — | — | Hardened by default |
| **Envoy ≥ 1.20** | NO | NO | partial | partial | Hardened in most paths |
| **HAProxy ≤ 2.4** | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | **Vulnerable**, see CVE-2021-40346 |
| **AWS ALB + specific upstream** | partial | partial | ✓ | ✓ | Sev