Description

Identifies insecure HTTP requests in Ruby applications that use HTTParty or rest-client libraries. The vulnerability occurs when applications make HTTP (non-HTTPS) requests, which transmit data in plaintext and are susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks, data tampering, and credential theft.

Detection Strategy

• Check if the application imports HTTParty or rest-client libraries

• Look for HTTP request method calls (get, post, put, patch, delete, head, options) made through HTTParty or RestClient objects

• Examine the URL parameter in these HTTP requests to identify if it uses an insecure 'http://' scheme instead of 'https://'

• Report a vulnerability when an HTTP request is made using an insecure URL scheme

Vulnerable code example

require 'httparty'

def unsafe_request
  # Vulnerable: Uses non-HTTPS URL for data transfer
  response = HTTParty.get('http://example.com', format: :plain)
  JSON.parse(response)
end

✅ Secure code example

require 'httparty'

def safe_request
  # Safe: Uses HTTPS URL to ensure encrypted data transfer
  response = HTTParty.get('https://example.com', format: :plain)
  JSON.parse(response)
end