GHSA-97r5-pg8x-p63pMedium
Flask-Security-Too OAuth reauthentication freshness bypass via cross- user OAuth identity acceptance
🔗 CVE IDs covered (1)
📋 Description
### Summary
Flask-Security-Too 5.8.0's OAuth reauthentication flow can mark a
session as fresh after verifying an OAuth account that belongs to a
different user.
If an attacker can operate an already-authenticated but stale victim
session, they can complete OAuth verification using their own OAuth
identity. The victim session is then treated as recently
reauthenticated, allowing freshness-protected account actions to
proceed. This was reproduced against the built-in `/change-username`
route.
### Details
The issue is in the OAuth verification callback.
`_oauth_response_common()` resolves the OAuth provider identity to a
Flask-Security user:
- `flask_security/oauth_glue.py:101-108`
`oauth_verify_response()` then accepts any resolved user and updates
the current session freshness timestamp:
- `flask_security/oauth_glue.py:182-214`
- `flask_security/oauth_glue.py:201-204`
The missing check is that the OAuth-resolved user must match the
current authenticated session user. In the failing case:
- current session user: `victim@example.com`
- OAuth verified user: `attacker@example.com`
- session marked fresh: yes
So the attacker is not logging in as the victim, but they are
satisfying the victim session's reauthentication requirement with a
different account.
### PoC
Tested version:
- `Flask-Security-Too 5.8.0`
- tag `5.8.0`
- commit `08288dff6907e413d848a16aaf43fc2c2b2a3b72`
Used a minimal Flask app with:
```python
SECURITY_OAUTH_ENABLE = True
SECURITY_OAUTH_BUILTIN_PROVIDERS = ["github"]
SECURITY_FRESHNESS = timedelta(seconds=1)
SECURITY_FRESHNESS_GRACE_PERIOD = timedelta(seconds=0)
SECURITY_USERNAME_ENABLE = True
SECURITY_CHANGE_USERNAME = True
The OAuth provider was replaced with a localhost mock provider
returning attacker@example.com. This avoids hitting a live third-party
provider while still exercising Flask-Security-Too's real OAuth
verification handler.
Reproduction steps:
1. Log in as victim@example.com.
2. Wait until the session is no longer fresh.
3. Confirm POST /change-username is blocked with 401 and
reauth_required=true.
4. Start OAuth verification with POST /login/oauth-verify-start/
github.
5. Complete the callback with an OAuth identity for
attacker@example.com.
6. Confirm the session is still for victim@example.com, but fs_paa has
been updated.
7. Retry POST /change-username.
8. The victim user's username is changed successfully.
Observed result:
{
"pre_bypass_status": 401,
"pre_bypass_reauth_required": true,
"attacker_identity": "attacker@example.com",
"oauth_verify_response_status": 302,
"post_bypass_change_username_status": 200,
"final_email": "victim@example.com",
"final_username": "victimowned1777878574",
"direct_impact_verified": true
}
Note: CSRF was disabled in the local harness only to keep the test
focused on the reauthentication check. This is not a CSRF bypass
report.
This bypasses Flask-Security-Too's freshness/reauthentication
boundary.
Applications using OAuth verification together with freshness-
protected account operations may allow a stale victim session to be
refreshed using a different user's OAuth account. In my test, this
allowed the victim account's username to be changed through Flask-
Security-Too's built-in /change-username route.
A likely fix is to reject OAuth verification unless the resolved OAuth
user matches current_user before updating session["fs_paa"].
🎯 Affected products1
- pip/Flask-Security-Too:>= 5.8.0, < 5.8.1