Open WebUI: Redirect-Bypass SSRF in OAuth `_process_picture_url` (incomplete-fix sibling of CVE-2026-45401)
Summary
backend/open_webui/utils/oauth.py::_process_picture_url (v0.9.5, lines 1435-1470) calls validate_url(picture_url) on the initial URL only, then invokes aiohttp.ClientSession.get(picture_url, ...) without allow_redirects=False. aiohttp's default is allow_redirects=True, max_redirects=10; the function does not pass the project's AIOHTTP_CLIENT_ALLOW_REDIRECTS env constant either. An attacker with a valid OAuth IdP identity can therefore submit a public URL that 302-redirects to an internal address and read the internal response body via the attacker's own profile_image_url field.
This is the same redirect-bypass class as CVE-2026-45401 (GHSA-rh5x-h6pp-cjj6), on a 6th call site that the v0.9.5 patch missed. CVE-2026-45401's advisory body enumerates exactly five affected paths — SafeWebBaseLoader._scrape, _fetch, get_content_from_url, load_url_image, get_image_base64_from_url — none in utils/oauth.py.
Vulnerable code (v0.9.5)
backend/open_webui/utils/oauth.py, lines 1435-1470:
async def _process_picture_url(self, picture_url: str, access_token: str = None) -> str:
if not picture_url:
return '/user.png'
try:
validate_url(picture_url) # initial URL only
get_kwargs = {}
if access_token:
get_kwargs['headers'] = {'Authorization': f'Bearer {access_token}'}
async with aiohttp.ClientSession(trust_env=True) as session:
async with session.get(picture_url, **get_kwargs,
ssl=AIOHTTP_CLIENT_SESSION_SSL) as resp:
# ^^^^^^^^^^^ no allow_redirects=False
if resp.ok:
picture = await resp.read()
base64_encoded_picture = base64.b64encode(picture).decode('utf-8')
guessed_mime_type = mimetypes.guess_type(picture_url)[0]
if guessed_mime_type is None:
guessed_mime_type = 'image/jpeg'
return f'data:{guessed_mime_type};base64,{base64_encoded_picture}'
...
The function is invoked at oauth.py:1556 (new-user OAuth signup) and oauth.py:1536 (existing-user picture update on login). Neither call site re-validates after redirect-following.
backend/open_webui/retrieval/web/utils.py (v0.9.5) imports the env constant AIOHTTP_CLIENT_ALLOW_REDIRECTS at line 51 and uses it on the five paths patched by CVE-2026-45401. utils/oauth.py does not import or reference it.
Exploitation
Preconditions:
ENABLE_OAUTH_SIGNUP=trueorOAUTH_UPDATE_PICTURE_ON_LOGIN=true(common in production OAuth-IdP deployments)- Attacker has a valid identity on the configured OAuth IdP (Google, Microsoft, GitHub, or any generic OIDC provider)
Steps:
- Attacker hosts a redirect endpoint at
http://attacker.example/ron a public IP.validate_url("http://attacker.example/r")returns True (is_global=Truefor public IPs). - Attacker sets their IdP
pictureclaim tohttp://attacker.example/r. - Attacker signs in to open-webui via OAuth. open-webui invokes
_process_picture_url("http://attacker.example/r", ...). validate_urlaccepts the public URL.session.get("http://attacker.example/r")is invoked.- attacker.example responds
HTTP/1.1 302 Found\r\nLocation: http://127.0.0.1:11434/api/tags. (Orhttp://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/, RFC1918 internal services, etc.) - aiohttp follows the redirect server-side. No re-validation.
- The internal response body is read into
picture, base64-encoded, and stored asprofile_image_url = "data:image/jpeg;base64,..."on the attacker's account. - Attacker reads back via
GET /api/v1/auths/. Decode the base64 payload to get the full internal response body.
Impact
Full-read SSRF, identical read-back primitive to CVE-2026-45338:
- Cloud metadata services (AWS IMDSv1 at
169.254.169.254, GCPmetadata.google.internal, Azure IMDS) → IAM credentials, managed-identity tokens - Localhost-bound services (Ollama at
:11434, Redis, Elasticsearch, internal Postgres exporters) - RFC1918 internal infrastructure not exposed to the internet
Distinction from prior CVEs
| Prior CVE | This finding | Distinguishing fact |
|---|---|---|
| CVE-2026-45338 (GHSA-24c9) | _process_picture_url had no validate_url() call at all |
Fixed in v0.9.0 by adding the call. Ours is the call being insufficient because it doesn't loop over redirect targets. Different mechanism, different fix. |
| CVE-2026-45400 (GHSA-8w7q) | validate_url() had urlparse-vs-requests parser disagreement on \@ chars |
Fixed in v0.9.5 by char-blocklist. Ours is post-validation redirect-following — orthogonal mechanism. |
| CVE-2026-45401 (GHSA-rh5x) | Five paths in retrieval, routers/images, utils/files, utils/middleware | Parent class. Same CWE-918 redirect-bypass mechanism. utils/oauth.py::_process_picture_url is not among the five paths in the parent advisory's "Affected code paths" section. Same class, missed sink. Direct sibling. |
Suggested fix
async with session.get(
picture_url,
**get_kwargs,
ssl=AIOHTTP_CLIENT_SESSION_SSL,
allow_redirects=AIOHTTP_CLIENT_ALLOW_REDIRECTS, # add
) as resp:
Or, if redirects must remain enabled by default, wrap in a manual-follow loop that re-invokes validate_url() on each Location header. This mirrors the fix shape applied to the five paths in CVE-2026-45401.
Affected versions
Vulnerable: `