FrankenPHP's unicode case-folding length expansion causes incorrect split_path index (SCRIPT_NAME/PATH_INFO confusion) in FrankenPHP

Summary

FrankenPHP’s CGI path splitting logic improperly handles Unicode characters during case conversion. The logic computes the split index (for finding .php) on a lowercased copy of the request path but applies that byte index to the original path.

Because strings.ToLower() in Go can increase the byte length of certain UTF-8 characters (e.g., Ⱥ expands when lowercased), the computed index may not align with the correct position in the original string. This results in an incorrect SCRIPT_NAME and SCRIPT_FILENAME, potentially causing FrankenPHP to execute a file other than the one intended by the URI.

Details

The vulnerability resides in the splitPos() function and its usage within splitCgiPath(). The logic attempts to find the script extension (e.g., .php) in a case-insensitive manner by lowercasing the path:

lowerPath := strings.ToLower(path)
idx := strings.Index(lowerPath, strings.ToLower(split))
return idx + len(split)

The issue is that the returned idx represents a byte offset within lowerPath. However, splitCgiPath() uses this index to slice the original path:

fc.docURI = path[:splitPos]
fc.pathInfo = path[splitPos:]
fc.scriptName = strings.TrimSuffix(path, fc.pathInfo)
fc.scriptFilename = sanitizedPathJoin(fc.documentRoot, fc.scriptName)

This logic relies on the assumption that len(strings.ToLower(path)) == len(path). This assumption is false for certain Unicode characters. For example, the character Ⱥ (U+023A) requires 2 bytes in UTF-8 (0xC8 0xBA), but its lowercase equivalent ⱥ (U+2C65) requires 3 bytes (0xE2 0xB1 0xA5).

If the path contains such characters before the .php extension, the index calculated on lowerPath will be larger than the corresponding visual point in the original path. When applied to the original path, the split occurs at the wrong byte offset. This can cause the server to treat a larger portion of the path as the script name, effectively allowing an attacker to manipulate SCRIPT_FILENAME.

PoC

The following Go program demonstrates the discrepancy between the byte index in the lowercased string versus the original string.

1. Save the following as poc.go:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "strings"
)

func splitPos(path string, split string) int {
    lowerPath := strings.ToLower(path)
    idx := strings.Index(lowerPath, strings.ToLower(split))
    if idx < 0 {
        return -1
    }
    return idx + len(split)
}

func main() {
    // U+023A: Ⱥ (UTF-8: C8 BA). Lowercase is ⱥ (UTF-8: E2 B1 A5), longer in bytes.
    // We construct a path where the byte expansion shifts the index.
    path := "/ȺȺȺȺshell.php.txt.php"
    split := ".php"

    pos := splitPos(path, split)

    fmt.Printf("orig bytes=%d\n", len(path))
    fmt.Printf("lower bytes=%d\n", len(strings.ToLower(path)))
    fmt.Printf("splitPos=%d\n", pos)

    // Current Unsafe Behavior:
    fmt.Printf("orig[:pos] (Calculated Script)=%q\n", path[:pos])
    fmt.Printf("orig[pos:] (Calculated PathInfo)=%q\n", path[pos:])

    // Expected Safe Behavior:
    want := strings.Index(path, split) + len(split)
    fmt.Printf("expected splitPos=%d\n", want)
    fmt.Printf("expected orig[:]=%q\n", path[:want])
}

2. Run the PoC:

go run poc.go

3. Output:

orig bytes=26
lower bytes=30
splitPos=22
orig[:pos]="/ȺȺȺȺshell.php.txt"
orig[pos:]=".php"
expected splitPos=18
expected orig[:]="/ȺȺȺȺshell.php"

In this example, FrankenPHP would identify /ȺȺȺȺshell.php.txt as the PHP script to execute, ignoring the fact that the actual file extension in the file system might be .txt.

Impact*

This is a Security Boundary Bypass and Path Confusion vulnerability.

In setups where users can upload files (e.g., avatars, text files) that are stored within the document root or a reachable path, an attacker can upload a file containing malicious PHP code with a safe extension (e.g., payload.txt). By crafting a request with specific Unicode characters, the attacker can force FrankenPHP to calculate the SCRIPT_FILENAME as ending in payload.txt, while the request appears to contain .php to the internal router logic.

This results in the execution of non-PHP files as PHP scripts, leading to Remote Code Execution (RCE).

Patched Versions

• This issue is fixed in FrankenPHP version 1.11.2.

Workarounds

• Ensure that user-uploaded files are stored outside of the public document root.
• Implement strict WAF rules to reject requests containing specific multi-byte Unicode characters in the URL path if an upgrade is not immediately possible.