pyLoad has Stale Session Privilege After Role/Permission Change (Privilege Revocation Bypass)

Therefore, privilege revocation is not enforced immediately for active sessions.

Note on duplicates:

• This appears distinct from CVE-2023-0227 (session validity after user deletion) because this report is about stale authorization after role/permission changes while the user still exists.

PoC

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
Repro: stale session privilege after role/permission changes.

This PoC is source-based and leaves no persistent state.
It validates that:
1) Role/permission are cached into session at login.
2) Authorization checks read role/permission from session, not fresh DB values.
3) User updates write DB permission/role without invalidating active sessions.
4) Default session lifetime is long, increasing stale-privilege exposure window.
"""

from __future__ import annotations

import pathlib
import re
from typing import Iterable


ROOT = pathlib.Path(__file__).resolve().parent / "pyload" / "src" / "pyload"


def read(rel: str) -> str:
    return (ROOT / rel).read_text(encoding="utf-8")


def has_any(text: str, patterns: Iterable[str]) -> bool:
    return all(re.search(p, text, re.MULTILINE) for p in patterns)


def main() -> None:
    helpers = read("webui/app/helpers.py")
    json_blueprint = read("webui/app/blueprints/json_blueprint.py")
    api_init = read("core/api/__init__.py")
    default_cfg = (ROOT / "core/config/default.cfg").read_text(encoding="utf-8")

    checks = {
        "set_session_caches_role_perms": has_any(
            helpers,
            [
                r'def\\s+set_session\\(',
                r'"role"\\s*:\\s*user_info\\["role"\\]',
                r'"perms"\\s*:\\s*user_info\\["permission"\\]',
            ],
        ),
        "is_authenticated_only_checks_user_exists": has_any(
            helpers,
            [
                r'def\\s+is_authenticated\\(',
                r'api\\s*=\\s*flask\\.current_app\\.config\\["PYLOAD_API"\\]',
                r'return\\s+authenticated\\s+and\\s+api\\.user_exists\\(user\\)',
            ],
        ),
        "parse_permissions_reads_session_cache": has_any(
            helpers,
            [
                r'def\\s+parse_permissions\\(',
                r'session\\.get\\("role"\\)\\s*==\\s*Role\\.ADMIN',
                r'session\\.get\\("perms"\\)',
            ],
        ),
        "login_required_uses_parse_permissions_session": has_any(
            helpers,
            [
                r'def\\s+login_required\\(',
                r'if\\s+is_authenticated\\(s\\):',
                r'perms\\s*=\\s*parse_permissions\\(s\\)',
            ],
        ),
        "api_session_auth_uses_cached_role_perms": has_any(
            helpers,
            [
                r'if\\s+is_authenticated\\(s\\):',
                r'"role"\\s*:\\s*s\\["role"\\]',
                r'"permission"\\s*:\\s*s\\["perms"\\]',
            ],
        ),
        "update_users_changes_db_without_session_invalidation": has_any(
            json_blueprint,
            [
                r'def\\s+update_users\\(',
                r'api\\.set_user_permission\\(name,\\s*data\\["permission"\\],\\s*data\\["role"\\]\\)',
                r'return\\s+jsonify\\(True\\)',
            ],
        ),
        "set_user_permission_only_updates_db": has_any(
            api_init,
            [
                r'def\\s+set_user_permission\\(',
                r'self\\.pyload\\.db\\.set_permission\\(user,\\s*permission\\)',
                r'self\\.pyload\\.db\\.set_role\\(user,\\s*role\\)',
            ],
        ),
        "default_session_lifetime_long": re.search(
            r'session_lifetime\\s*:\\s*"Session lifetime \\(minutes\\)"\\s*=\\s*44640',
            default_cfg,
            re.MULTILINE,
        )
        is not None,
    }

    for name, ok in checks.items():
        print(f"{name}={ok}")

    stale_privilege_repro_success = all(checks.values())
    print(f"stale_privilege_repro_success={stale_privilege_repro_success}")

    # Cleanup: this PoC creates/modifies no runtime/data files.
    print("cleanup_done=True")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

set_session_caches_role_perms=True
is_authenticated_only_checks_user_exists=True
parse_permissions_reads_session_cache=True
login_required_uses_parse_permissions_session=True
api_session_auth_uses_cached_role_perms=True
update_users_changes_db_without_session_invalidation=True
set_user_permission_only_updates_db=True
default_session_lifetime_long=True
stale_privilege_repro_success=True
cleanup_done=True

Impact

• Privilege revocation is not immediate for active sessions.
• A user can continue using stale, previously granted privileges (including admin) after downgrade/restriction.
• This can allow continued access to privileged WebUI/API actions until session expiry or manual logout/session reset.