So file:///etc/passwd means “the file /etc/passwd on this computer”.
The primary danger associated with this keyword is its use in attacks. If a web application allows users to provide a URL that is then processed by a backend curl (or libcurl ) instance, an attacker can use the file:/// protocol to read sensitive local files from the server. curl overwrite local file with -J - CVE-2020-8177 curl-url-file-3A-2F-2F-2F
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_PROTOCOLS, CURLPROTO_HTTP | CURLPROTO_HTTPS); So file:///etc/passwd means “the file /etc/passwd on this
: Using the -X or --request option with POST , you can upload files to a server. CURLPROTO_HTTP | CURLPROTO_HTTPS)
are the hexadecimal (percent-encoded) representations of the colon ( ) and forward slash ( ), respectively. Stack Overflow Technical Breakdown