GHSA-jj7h-c3hg-m23x

    Dashboard / Vulnerabilities / GHSA-jj7h-c3hg-m23x

    GHSA-jj7h-c3hg-m23x

    Published: 27 Oct 2026Last Modified: 30 Oct 2026

    Summary: Authlib: is_secure_transport() loopback exemption can be bypassed with a userinfo component, allowing cleartext-HTTP URLs to non-loopback hosts

    Details: ### Summary `authlib.common.security.is_secure_transport()` is used throughout Authlib to enforce the OAuth 2.0 / OIDC requirement that endpoint and redirect URIs use TLS, with an RFC 8252 §7.3 exemption for loopback `http://` URIs. The check is implemented as a textual `str.startswith` prefix match, so a URL such as `http://localhost:[email protected]/cb` — whose actual host is `evil.example` and whose scheme is plain `http` — is accepted as "secure". An attacker who can supply a URL to any of the sinks that rely on this check (OIDC RP-Initiated Logout dynamic client registration, RFC 8414 authorization-server metadata validation, error-redirect rendering) can smuggle a cleartext non-loopback URL past the TLS-required guard. This is a defense-in-depth / spec-conformance failure; severity is low. ### Details **Affected versions:** `authlib >= 0.13, <= 1.7.2` (all releases containing the loopback prefix exemption; verified against 1.7.2, the current latest) The vulnerable function, from `authlib/common/security.py` at v1.7.2: ```python 13 def is_secure_transport(uri): 14 """Check if the uri is over ssl.""" 15 if os.getenv("AUTHLIB_INSECURE_TRANSPORT"): 16 return True 17 18 uri = uri.lower() 19 return uri.startswith( 20 ("https://", "http://localhost:", "http://127.0.0.1:", "http://[::1]:") 21 ) ``` Per RFC 3986 §3.2 the authority component of a URI is `[ userinfo "@" ] host [ ":" port ]`. The URL `http://localhost:[email protected]/cb` therefore has userinfo `localhost:80` and host `evil.example`. Because the check is a raw prefix match against the full URL string, the `http://localhost:` prefix matches the userinfo portion and the function returns `True` even though the scheme is `http` and the host is an arbitrary external name. The trailing `:` in each allow-list entry — presumably intended to force a `host:port` shape and reject `http://localhost.evil.com` — is also satisfied by the `user:password` separator inside userinfo, so `http://localhost:@evil.example/` matches too. The same construction works against all three loopback prefixes (`http://127.0.0.1:[email protected]/`, `http://[::1]:[email protected]/`). `is_secure_transport()` is consumed at the following locations in v1.7.2, none of which independently reject URLs containing a userinfo component: - `authlib/oidc/rpinitiated/registration.py:50-57` — validation of `post_logout_redirect_uris` during OIDC dynamic client registration for public clients (`token_endpoint_auth_method == "none"`). The preceding `is_valid_url()` check (`authlib/common/urls.py:142-146`) only requires `parsed.scheme and parsed.hostname` and does **not** reject userinfo, so the crafted URL passes both guards. A public client can therefore register `http://localhost:[email protected]/cb` as a post-logout redirect target; the OpenID Provider will later 302 the end-user's browser to that cleartext non-loopback URL (carrying `state`). - `authlib/oauth2/rfc8414/models.py:61,75,100,115,123,248,284` — validation of `issuer`, `authorization_endpoint`, `token_endpoint`, `jwks_uri`, `registration_endpoint`, `revocation_endpoint`, `introspection_endpoint` in Authorization Server Metadata / OIDC Discovery documents. A relying party using `AuthorizationServerMetadata.validate()` would accept endpoint values of this form as satisfying the "MUST use https" requirement when they do not. - `authlib/oidc/rpinitiated/discovery.py:12` — validation of `end_session_endpoint` in provider metadata. - `authlib/oauth2/rfc6749/errors.py:64` and `authlib/oauth1/rfc5849/errors.py:33` — governs how `redirect_uri` is rendered in error bodies (cosmetic). The `http://localhost:` prefix was introduced in commit `0225c86b` (first released in v0.13); `http://127.0.0.1:` and `http://[::1]:` were added later in the 1.6.x line. All variants share the same prefix-match weakness. ### PoC Against the current latest release (1.7.2): ```sh python3 -m venv venv ./venv/bin/pip install 'authlib==1.7.2' ./venv/bin/python poc.py ``` `poc.py`: ```python #!/usr/bin/env python3 """ is_secure_transport() must return True only for https:// URLs, or http:// URLs whose host is a loopback address (localhost / 127.0.0.1 / ::1). Bypass: http://localhost:[email protected]/cb has host 'evil.example' (userinfo = 'localhost:80') per RFC 3986, but matches the prefix 'http://localhost:' and is therefore accepted as secure. """ from urllib.parse import urlparse from authlib.common.security import is_secure_transport cases = [ "http://localhost:[email protected]/cb", "http://127.0.0.1:[email protected]/cb", "http://localhost:@evil.example/cb", ] vulnerable = False for url in cases: parsed = urlparse(url) ok = is_secure_transport(url) print(f"is_secure_transport({url!r}) = {ok} " f"[actual host = {parsed.hostname!r}, scheme = {parsed.scheme!r}]") if ok and parsed.hostname not in ("localhost", "127.0.0.1", "::1") and parsed.scheme != "https": vulnerable = True if vulnerable: print("\nVULNERABLE: is_secure_transport() returned True for a plain-HTTP " "URL whose host is NOT a loopback address.") else: print("\nNOT VULNERABLE") assert vulnerable, "expected bypass not observed" ``` Expected output: ``` is_secure_transport('http://localhost:[email protected]/cb') = True [actual host = 'evil.example', scheme = 'http'] is_secure_transport('http://127.0.0.1:[email protected]/cb') = True [actual host = 'evil.example', scheme = 'http'] is_secure_transport('http://localhost:@evil.example/cb') = True [actual host = 'evil.example', scheme = 'http'] VULNERABLE: is_secure_transport() returned True for a plain-HTTP URL whose host is NOT a loopback address. ``` ### Impact Deployments are affected if they rely on `is_secure_transport()` — directly or via the Authlib call sites listed above — to reject cleartext non-loopback URLs supplied by an external party. The most realistic path is an OpenID Provider that enables OIDC dynamic client registration and RP-Initiated Logout: a public client can register a `post_logout_redirect_uris` entry of the form `http://localhost:[email protected]/…`, which the provider will later use as an open-redirect target over plain HTTP. Relying parties that call `AuthorizationServerMetadata.validate()` on fetched discovery documents are also affected, though exploiting that sink requires the attacker to influence the metadata document. This does **not** bypass the OAuth 2.0 redirect-URI exact-match registration check and does not by itself yield authentication bypass or token theft; it defeats a TLS-required hardening check. **Suggested fix:** Parse the URI with `urllib.parse.urlsplit()` and return `True` only if `scheme == "https"`, or `scheme == "http"` and `hostname in {"localhost", "127.0.0.1", "::1"}`; additionally reject any URI whose parsed `username`/`password` is non-empty at these validation sites.

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name: authlib

    Purl: pkg:pypi/authlib

    Affected ranges

    Type: ECOSYSTEM

    Events:

    Introduced- 0
    Fixed -1.8.0

    Affected versions

    0.1

    Common Vulnerability Scoring System

    Attack Vector
    Network
    Adjacent
    Local
    Physical
    Privileges Required
    None
    Low
    High
    User Interaction
    None
    Required
    Scope
    Unchanged
    Changed
    Confidentiality
    None
    Low
    High
    Integrity
    None
    Low
    High
    Availability
    None
    Low
    High
    GHSA-jj7h-c3hg-m23x | CVE-DB