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Flask vulnerable to possible disclosure of permanent session cookie due to missing Vary: Cookie header

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 1, 2023 in pallets/flask • Updated Nov 6, 2023

Package

pip flask (pip)

Affected versions

>= 2.3.0, < 2.3.2
< 2.2.5

Patched versions

2.3.2
2.2.5

Description

When all of the following conditions are met, a response containing data intended for one client may be cached and subsequently sent by a proxy to other clients. If the proxy also caches Set-Cookie headers, it may send one client's session cookie to other clients. The severity depends on the application's use of the session, and the proxy's behavior regarding cookies. The risk depends on all these conditions being met.

  1. The application must be hosted behind a caching proxy that does not strip cookies or ignore responses with cookies.
  2. The application sets session.permanent = True.
  3. The application does not access or modify the session at any point during a request.
  4. SESSION_REFRESH_EACH_REQUEST is enabled (the default).
  5. The application does not set a Cache-Control header to indicate that a page is private or should not be cached.

This happens because vulnerable versions of Flask only set the Vary: Cookie header when the session is accessed or modified, not when it is refreshed (re-sent to update the expiration) without being accessed or modified.

References

@davidism davidism published to pallets/flask May 1, 2023
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database May 1, 2023
Reviewed May 1, 2023
Published by the National Vulnerability Database May 2, 2023
Last updated Nov 6, 2023

Severity

High
7.5
/ 10

CVSS base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2023-30861

GHSA ID

GHSA-m2qf-hxjv-5gpq

Source code

Credits

Checking history
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