CVE-2023-44487 PoC (Network Security Course Final Project)

This repository contains a safe proof-of-concept (PoC) for reproducing CVE-2023-44487 using Docker.
It was developed as my final project for the "Network Security" course.

⚠️ Disclaimer:
This repository is a course project intended for educational and research purposes only.
Do NOT use it to attack or exploit any systems without authorization.

Overview

CVE-2023-44487 is a vulnerability in HTTP/2 that allows a denial-of-service (DoS) via server resource consumption.
According to NVD:
"The HTTP/2 protocol allows a denial of service (server resource consumption) because request cancellation can reset many streams quickly, as exploited in the wild in August through October 2023."

This project demonstrates the vulnerability in a controlled Docker environment.
It uses two client containers to simulate the attack.

The goal is to:

• Reproduce the vulnerability
• Understand the root cause

Usage / Reproduction

You can reproduce the vulnerability by following these steps:

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Howard375/http2_rapid_reset.git
cd http2_rapid_reset

2. Build and run the Docker environment

docker-compose up --build

After step 2:

• A Nginx server (victim) and two client containers (attackers) will be created.

• You can access the server at http://localhost:8080/index.html.

• The two client containers will automatically run attack.py to launch a DoS attack against the Nginx server.

• After a short time, the page may become unresponsive, demonstrating the vulnerability.

3. Stop the environment

Since attack.py runs in an infinite loop, press Ctrl+C in the terminal where docker-compose up --build is running to stop the containers gracefully, then run:

docker-compose down

• The netshoot container will generate data in the data/ directory.

Requirements

• Docker
• Docker Compose
• Internet connection to download base images