PYSEC-2026-2747
Vulnerability from pysec - Published: 2026-07-13 15:19 - Updated: 2026-07-13 16:05Summary
GET /api/v1/memories/ef is accessible without authentication and executes request.app.state.EMBEDDING_FUNCTION(...). This allows any unauthenticated caller to trigger embedding generation which can lead to direct cost exposure if a paid provider is used.
Code reference: backend/open_webui/routers/memories.py (@router.get("/ef") -> calls request.app.state.EMBEDDING_FUNCTION("hello world")).
Details
GET /api/v1/memories/ef is reachable without authentication and triggers request.app.state.EMBEDDING_FUNCTION("hello world"). This crosses an intended security boundary by allowing unauthenticated users to invoke potentially expensive embedding computation and/or paid upstream embedding APIs.
PoC
- Start Open WebUI in default configuration (no special env hardening; default ENABLE_MEMORIES is true).
- From an unauthenticated client (no cookies/Authorization header), call: curl -i http://\<host>:\<port>/api/v1/memories/ef
- Observe the server performs embedding generation and returns a response like:
- HTTP 200 with JSON containing the result.
How it can be abused / attacker actions:
- Send repeated requests to
/api/v1/memories/efto: - consume CPU/GPU resources (DoS)
- generate sustained outbound usage to embedding providers if configured (cost + rate-limit exhaustion)
- degrade latency/availability for legitimate users
Impact
If embeddings are configured to use paid/remote providers (OpenAI/Azure/etc), an attacker can generate unlimited requests and incur charges.
Resolution
Fixed in commit e5035ea31, first released in v0.8.0 (Feb 2026). The /api/v1/memories/ef route was removed entirely. It was a diagnostic/debug-style endpoint that hard-coded "hello world" through the embedding function without any authentication dependency; there was no legitimate caller that depended on it, so deletion was the cleaner fix than retrofitting auth. Users on >= 0.8.0 are not affected.
| Name | purl | open-webui | pkg:pypi/open-webui |
|---|
{
"affected": [
{
"package": {
"ecosystem": "PyPI",
"name": "open-webui",
"purl": "pkg:pypi/open-webui"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "0.8.0"
}
],
"type": "ECOSYSTEM"
}
],
"versions": [
"0.1.124",
"0.1.125",
"0.2.0",
"0.2.1",
"0.2.2",
"0.2.3",
"0.2.4",
"0.2.5",
"0.3.0",
"0.3.1",
"0.3.10",
"0.3.12",
"0.3.13",
"0.3.14",
"0.3.15",
"0.3.16",
"0.3.17",
"0.3.17.dev2",
"0.3.17.dev3",
"0.3.17.dev4",
"0.3.17.dev5",
"0.3.18",
"0.3.19",
"0.3.2",
"0.3.20",
"0.3.21",
"0.3.22",
"0.3.23",
"0.3.24",
"0.3.25",
"0.3.26",
"0.3.27",
"0.3.27.dev1",
"0.3.27.dev2",
"0.3.27.dev3",
"0.3.28",
"0.3.29",
"0.3.3",
"0.3.30",
"0.3.30.dev1",
"0.3.30.dev2",
"0.3.31",
"0.3.31.dev1",
"0.3.32",
"0.3.33",
"0.3.33.dev1",
"0.3.34",
"0.3.35",
"0.3.4",
"0.3.5",
"0.3.6",
"0.3.7",
"0.3.8",
"0.3.9",
"0.4.0",
"0.4.0.dev1",
"0.4.0.dev2",
"0.4.1",
"0.4.2",
"0.4.3",
"0.4.4",
"0.4.5",
"0.4.6",
"0.4.6.dev1",
"0.4.7",
"0.4.8",
"0.5.0",
"0.5.0.dev1",
"0.5.0.dev2",
"0.5.1",
"0.5.10",
"0.5.11",
"0.5.12",
"0.5.13",
"0.5.14",
"0.5.15",
"0.5.16",
"0.5.17",
"0.5.18",
"0.5.19",
"0.5.2",
"0.5.20",
"0.5.3",
"0.5.3.dev1",
"0.5.4",
"0.5.5",
"0.5.6",
"0.5.7",
"0.5.8",
"0.5.9",
"0.6.0",
"0.6.1",
"0.6.10",
"0.6.11",
"0.6.12",
"0.6.13",
"0.6.14",
"0.6.15",
"0.6.16",
"0.6.18",
"0.6.19",
"0.6.2",
"0.6.20",
"0.6.21",
"0.6.22",
"0.6.23",
"0.6.24",
"0.6.25",
"0.6.26",
"0.6.26.dev1",
"0.6.27",
"0.6.28",
"0.6.29",
"0.6.3",
"0.6.30",
"0.6.31",
"0.6.32",
"0.6.33",
"0.6.34",
"0.6.35",
"0.6.36",
"0.6.37",
"0.6.38",
"0.6.39",
"0.6.4",
"0.6.40",
"0.6.41",
"0.6.42",
"0.6.43",
"0.6.5",
"0.6.6",
"0.6.6.dev1",
"0.6.7",
"0.6.8",
"0.6.9",
"0.7.0",
"0.7.1",
"0.7.2"
]
}
],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2026-45667",
"GHSA-m69w-p7m4-585j"
],
"details": "### Summary\nGET `/api/v1/memories/ef` is accessible without authentication and executes `request.app.state.EMBEDDING_FUNCTION(...)`. This allows any unauthenticated caller to trigger embedding generation which can lead to direct cost exposure if a paid provider is used.\nCode reference: `backend/open_webui/routers/memories.py` (@router.get(\"/ef\") -\u003e calls `request.app.state.EMBEDDING_FUNCTION(\"hello world\"))`.\n\n\n### Details\nGET `/api/v1/memories/ef` is reachable without authentication and triggers request.app.state.EMBEDDING_FUNCTION(\"hello world\"). This crosses an intended security boundary by allowing unauthenticated users to invoke potentially expensive embedding computation and/or paid upstream embedding APIs.\n\n### PoC\n1. Start Open WebUI in default configuration (no special env hardening; default ENABLE_MEMORIES is true).\n2. From an unauthenticated client (no cookies/Authorization header), call:\n curl -i http://\\\u003chost\\\u003e:\\\u003cport\\\u003e/api/v1/memories/ef\n 3. Observe the server performs embedding generation and returns a response like:\n - HTTP 200 with JSON containing the result.\n\nHow it can be abused / attacker actions:\n\n- Send repeated requests to `/api/v1/memories/ef` to:\n - consume CPU/GPU resources (DoS)\n - generate sustained outbound usage to embedding providers if configured (cost + rate-limit exhaustion)\n - degrade latency/availability for legitimate users\n \n### Impact\nIf embeddings are configured to use paid/remote providers (OpenAI/Azure/etc), an attacker can generate unlimited requests and incur charges.\n\n## Resolution\n\nFixed in commit [e5035ea31](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/commit/e5035ea31e179977e805a7032c979ff59a71860a), first released in **v0.8.0** (Feb 2026). The `/api/v1/memories/ef` route was removed entirely. It was a diagnostic/debug-style endpoint that hard-coded `\"hello world\"` through the embedding function without any authentication dependency; there was no legitimate caller that depended on it, so deletion was the cleaner fix than retrofitting auth. Users on `\u003e= 0.8.0` are not affected.",
"id": "PYSEC-2026-2747",
"modified": "2026-07-13T16:05:14.108515Z",
"published": "2026-07-13T15:19:07.928759Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-m69w-p7m4-585j"
},
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-45667"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/commit/e5035ea31e179977e805a7032c979ff59a71860a"
},
{
"type": "PACKAGE",
"url": "https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/releases/tag/v0.8.0"
},
{
"type": "PACKAGE",
"url": "https://pypi.org/project/open-webui"
},
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-m69w-p7m4-585j"
}
],
"severity": [
{
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L",
"type": "CVSS_V3"
}
],
"summary": "Open WebUI: Unauthenticated endpoint can trigger embedding generation (cost/DoS)"
}
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.