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GHSA-97r5-pg8x-p63p
No affected components available
Summary
Flask-Security-Too 5.8.0's OAuth reauthentication flow can mark a session as fresh after verifying an OAuth account that belongs to a different user.
If an attacker can operate an already-authenticated but stale victim
session, they can complete OAuth verification using their own OAuth
identity. The victim session is then treated as recently
reauthenticated, allowing freshness-protected account actions to
proceed. This was reproduced against the built-in /change-username
route.
Details
The issue is in the OAuth verification callback.
_oauth_response_common() resolves the OAuth provider identity to a
Flask-Security user:
flask_security/oauth_glue.py:101-108
oauth_verify_response() then accepts any resolved user and updates
the current session freshness timestamp:
flask_security/oauth_glue.py:182-214flask_security/oauth_glue.py:201-204
The missing check is that the OAuth-resolved user must match the current authenticated session user. In the failing case:
- current session user:
victim@example.com - OAuth verified user:
attacker@example.com - session marked fresh: yes
So the attacker is not logging in as the victim, but they are satisfying the victim session's reauthentication requirement with a different account.
PoC
Tested version:
Flask-Security-Too 5.8.0- tag
5.8.0 - commit
08288dff6907e413d848a16aaf43fc2c2b2a3b72
Used a minimal Flask app with:
SECURITY_OAUTH_ENABLE = True
SECURITY_OAUTH_BUILTIN_PROVIDERS = ["github"]
SECURITY_FRESHNESS = timedelta(seconds=1)
SECURITY_FRESHNESS_GRACE_PERIOD = timedelta(seconds=0)
SECURITY_USERNAME_ENABLE = True
SECURITY_CHANGE_USERNAME = True
The OAuth provider was replaced with a localhost mock provider
returning attacker@example.com. This avoids hitting a live third-party
provider while still exercising Flask-Security-Too's real OAuth
verification handler.
Reproduction steps:
1. Log in as victim@example.com.
2. Wait until the session is no longer fresh.
3. Confirm POST /change-username is blocked with 401 and
reauth_required=true.
4. Start OAuth verification with POST /login/oauth-verify-start/
github.
5. Complete the callback with an OAuth identity for
attacker@example.com.
6. Confirm the session is still for victim@example.com, but fs_paa has
been updated.
7. Retry POST /change-username.
8. The victim user's username is changed successfully.
Observed result:
{
"pre_bypass_status": 401,
"pre_bypass_reauth_required": true,
"attacker_identity": "attacker@example.com",
"oauth_verify_response_status": 302,
"post_bypass_change_username_status": 200,
"final_email": "victim@example.com",
"final_username": "victimowned1777878574",
"direct_impact_verified": true
}
Note: CSRF was disabled in the local harness only to keep the test
focused on the reauthentication check. This is not a CSRF bypass
report.
This bypasses Flask-Security-Too's freshness/reauthentication
boundary.
Applications using OAuth verification together with freshness-
protected account operations may allow a stale victim session to be
refreshed using a different user's OAuth account. In my test, this
allowed the victim account's username to be changed through Flask-
Security-Too's built-in /change-username route.
A likely fix is to reject OAuth verification unless the resolved OAuth
user matches current_user before updating session["fs_paa"].
Measures severity based on intrinsic characteristics of the vulnerability, independent of environment.
No exploitation activity has been observed at this time. Continue routine monitoring.
Probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days.
We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.
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