CVE-2023-30861CWE-539

Flask vulnerable to possible disclosure of permanent session cookie due to missing Vary: Cookie header

High · published May 2, 2023

CVSS v3.1
7.5
EPSS
1%
Percentile
69.4
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

Flask is a lightweight WSGI web application framework. When all of the following conditions are met, a response containing data intended for one client may be cached and subsequently sent by the proxy to other clients. If the proxy also caches `Set-Cookie` headers, it may send one client's `session` cookie to other clients. The severity depends on the application's use of the session and the proxy's behavior regarding cookies. The risk depends on all these conditions being met.

1. The application must be hosted behind a caching proxy that does not strip cookies or ignore responses with cookies.

2. The application sets `session.permanent = True`

3. The application does not access or modify the session at any point during a request.

4. `SESSION_REFRESH_EACH_REQUEST` enabled (the default).

5. The application does not set a `Cache-Control` header to indicate that a page is private or should not be cached.

This happens because vulnerable versions of Flask only set the `Vary: Cookie` header when the session is accessed or modified, not when it is refreshed (re-sent to update the expiration) without being accessed or modified. This issue has been fixed in versions 2.3.2 and 2.2.5.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
7.5 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.01261 · 69.4th percentile
Weakness
CWE-539 · Use of Persistent Cookies Containing Sensitive Information
Published
2023-05-02T17:04Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 02 MAY 17:04Z
    Flask vulnerable to possible disclosure of permanent session cookie due to missing Vary: Cookie header
    cvelistv5