2023-05-18

Homoglyph slashes in URL

Read a blog post, The Dangers of Google’s .zip TLD, from @bobbyrsec

TIL: "@" and "/" in URL redirection

URI on Wikipedia

userinfo host port ┌──┴──┐ ┌───┴──┐ ┌┴┐ https://[email protected]:123 └─┬─┘ └─────────┬────────┘ scheme authority

Redirect examples

URL with @ operator: redirect to what comes after "@"

# URL with @ operator https://[email protected] └───┬────┘ └───┬──┘ userinfo host -> bing.com
# URL with @ operator, malicious intent https://[email protected] └───┬───┘ └───┬──┘ userinfo host -> evil.com 💀

Semantic attack example

ftp://cnn.example.com&[email protected]/top_story.htm

✅ Legitimate slash:

  • / [U+002F]

Homoglyph slashs:

  • ⁄ [U+2044]
  • ∕ [U+2215]
  • / [U+FF0F]
  • ⧸ [U+29F8]

Slash before "@" doesn't redirect to what comes after "@", but homoglyph slashes will redirect to what comes after "@".

✅ / [U+002F] ┌┴┐ https://google.com/[email protected] └───────┬───────┘ NOT userinfo -> google.com
❌ ∕ [U+2215] ┌┴┐ https://google.com∕[email protected] └───────┬───────┘ └───┬──┘ userinfo host -> bing.com 💀