GHSA-7rw5-9f7q-xj36
Open WebUI: Account enumeration via observable login timing discrepancy
Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| PyPI | open-webui | < 0.10.0 | 0.10.0 |
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
### Summary
The `/api/v1/auths/signin` endpoint leaked whether an email address belonged to a registered account through a response-time side channel. Password verification ran bcrypt only when the email was found in the database; for a non-existent email the request returned early without hashing. The expensive bcrypt comparison therefore made valid-account attempts respond significantly slower (~180 ms) than non-existent ones (~5 ms), so an unauthenticated attacker could enumerate valid accounts by measuring response time.
### Details
On signin the backend looked the user up by email and only performed the bcrypt password comparison if a record existed. A missing email short-circuited before any hashing, producing the timing gap. The built-in brute-force throttling did not prevent it: sending one request at a time with a small delay between requests stays under the rate limit while still exposing the difference.
Observed in the reporter's run (HTTP 400 for every attempt, the response time is the signal):
```
Email Status Response time
[email protected] 400 186 ms <- valid account
[email protected] 400 9 ms
[email protected] 400 6 ms
[email protected] 400 5 ms
```
### Impact
An unauthenticated attacker can enumerate which email addresses are registered accounts, which enables targeted password-spraying against confirmed accounts. The impact is amplified by MFA not being enabled by default. No data is read or modified; the disclosure is limited to account existence.
### Patched
The authentication path now runs a bcrypt verification against a constant placeholder hash whenever the email does not resolve to an active credential, so a real hash comparison executes on every attempt and the response time is the same whether or not the account exists. Fixed in 0.10.0.
### Credits
@dievus
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.
- https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-7rw5-9f7q-xj36
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-59218
- https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/pull/26385
- https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/commit/993e74912199c66c522f08ec81abe31d76985e39
- https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui
- https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/releases/tag/v0.10.0