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GHSA-8h2j-cgx8-6xv7

HighCVSS 8.2 / 10
Published Jun 10, 2021·Last modified Mar 13, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Impact

FastAPI versions lower than 0.65.2 that used cookies for authentication in path operations that received JSON payloads sent by browsers were vulnerable to a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack.

In versions lower than 0.65.2, FastAPI would try to read the request payload as JSON even if the content-type header sent was not set to application/json or a compatible JSON media type (e.g. application/geo+json).

So, a request with a content type of text/plain containing JSON data would be accepted and the JSON data would be extracted.

But requests with content type text/plain are exempt from CORS preflights, for being considered Simple requests. So, the browser would execute them right away including cookies, and the text content could be a JSON string that would be parsed and accepted by the FastAPI application.

Patches

This is fixed in FastAPI 0.65.2.

The request data is now parsed as JSON only if the content-type header is application/json or another JSON compatible media type like application/geo+json.

Workarounds

It's best to upgrade to the latest FastAPI.

But still, it would be possible to add a middleware or a dependency that checks the content-type header and aborts the request if it is not application/json or another JSON compatible content type.

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments, write to security@tiangolo.com

Risk Scores
Base Score
8.2

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 low impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data.

Threat Intelligence
7.5

Exploitation activity has been observed. Apply available patches or mitigations urgently.

EPSS
0.77%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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