GHSA-8h2j-cgx8-6xv7
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in FastAPI
Packages
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
### Impact
FastAPI versions lower than `0.65.2` that used cookies for authentication in path operations that received JSON payloads sent by browsers were vulnerable to a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack.
In versions lower than `0.65.2`, FastAPI would try to read the request payload as JSON even if the `content-type` header sent was not set to `application/json` or a compatible JSON media type (e.g. `application/geo+json`).
So, a request with a content type of `text/plain` containing JSON data would be accepted and the JSON data would be extracted.
But requests with content type `text/plain` are exempt from [CORS](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS) preflights, for being considered [Simple requests](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS#simple_requests). So, the browser would execute them right away including cookies, and the text content could be a JSON string that would be parsed and accepted by the FastAPI application.
### Patches
This is fixed in FastAPI `0.65.2`.
The request data is now parsed as JSON only if the `content-type` header is `application/json` or another JSON compatible media type like `application/geo+json`.
### Workarounds
It's best to upgrade to the latest FastAPI.
But still, it would be possible to add a middleware or a dependency that checks the `content-type` header and aborts the request if it is not `application/json` or another JSON compatible content type.
### References
* [CORS on Mozilla web docs](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS)
* [This answer on StackExchange](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/157528/ways-to-bypass-browsers-cors-policy/157531#157531)
* [OWASP CSRF](https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/csrf)
* Fixed in PR [#2118](https://github.com/tiangolo/fastapi/pull/2118)
### For more information
If you have any questions or comments, write to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.
- https://github.com/tiangolo/fastapi/security/advisories/GHSA-8h2j-cgx8-6xv7
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-32677
- https://github.com/tiangolo/fastapi/commit/fa7e3c996edf2d5482fff8f9d890ac2390dede4d
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/fastapi/PYSEC-2021-100.yaml
- https://github.com/tiangolo/fastapi
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/MATAWX25TYKNEKLDMKWNLYDB34UWTROA