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Better Auth allows bypassing the trustedOrigins Protection which leads to ATO

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Feb 24, 2025 in better-auth/better-auth • Updated Feb 24, 2025

Package

npm better-auth (npm)

Affected versions

<= 1.1.20

Patched versions

1.1.21

Description

Summary

A bypass was found for the security feature trustedOrigins. This works for wild card or absolute URLs trustedOrigins configs and opens the victims website to a Open Redirect vulnerability, where it can be used to steal the reset password token of a victims account by changing the "callbackURL" parameter value to a website owned by the attacker.

Details

Absolute URLs

The issue here appears in the middleware, specifically. This protection is not sufficiente and it allows attackers to get a open redirect, by using the payload /\/example.com. We can check this is a valid URL ( or it will be a valid URL because the URL parser fix it for us ), by checking the image bellow:

image

// trustedOrigins = [ "https://example.com" ]
validateURL("https://attacker.com", "callbackURL") // ❌ APIError, No Redirect
validateURL("/\/attacker.com", "callbackURL")       // ✅ Redirect to http://attacker.com

Regex

The issue here is because the regex is not strong enough [^/\\]*?\.example\.com[/\\]*? ( this is the regex it will be created if we have a wildcard as config ), but we can bypass by using a payload like:

// trustedOrigins = [ "*.example.com" ]
  ┌──────────────────┐       ┌────────────────┐       ┌─────────────────┐
  │ None of [ "/\" ] │ ────▶ │ ".example.com" │ ────▶ │ One of [ "/\" ] │
  └──────────────────┘       └────────────────┘       └─────────────────┘
          demo                  .example.com                    /               ✅ Redirect to https://example.com
          demo                  .attacker.com                   /               ❌ APIError, no redirect
   http:attacker.com?           .example.com                    /               ✅ Redirect to http://attacker.com

This works because : and ? are special chars in a URL, so when the URL parser sees, http: it will fix our happily fix our URL to http://attacker.com? and make .example.com as parameter, thus, bypassing this check

PoC

We can PoC the open redirect by using the demo.better-auth.com.
If we access the URL bellow, we are redirected to example.com:

Impact

Every single website using the better-auth library, is vulnerable to un-auth open redirect and more importantilly, vulnerable to potential one click account take over vulnerability, as the attacker can send the victim a email to reset their account while changing the "redirectTo" parameter here, and when the victim clicks on the link, the reset token is sent to the attackers website, thus making the attacker to use the token stolen and reset the password of the victim.

References

@Bekacru Bekacru published to better-auth/better-auth Feb 24, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Feb 24, 2025
Reviewed Feb 24, 2025
Last updated Feb 24, 2025

Severity

Critical

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 v4 base metrics

Exploitability Metrics
Attack Vector Network
Attack Complexity Low
Attack Requirements None
Privileges Required None
User interaction None
Vulnerable System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality High
Integrity High
Availability High
Subsequent System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality None
Integrity None
Availability None

CVSS v4 base metrics

Exploitability Metrics
Attack Vector: This metric reflects the context by which vulnerability exploitation is possible. This metric value (and consequently the resulting severity) will be larger the more remote (logically, and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerable system. The assumption is that the number of potential attackers for a vulnerability that could be exploited from across a network is larger than the number of potential attackers that could exploit a vulnerability requiring physical access to a device, and therefore warrants a greater severity.
Attack Complexity: This metric captures measurable actions that must be taken by the attacker to actively evade or circumvent existing built-in security-enhancing conditions in order to obtain a working exploit. These are conditions whose primary purpose is to increase security and/or increase exploit engineering complexity. A vulnerability exploitable without a target-specific variable has a lower complexity than a vulnerability that would require non-trivial customization. This metric is meant to capture security mechanisms utilized by the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: This metric captures the prerequisite deployment and execution conditions or variables of the vulnerable system that enable the attack. These differ from security-enhancing techniques/technologies (ref Attack Complexity) as the primary purpose of these conditions is not to explicitly mitigate attacks, but rather, emerge naturally as a consequence of the deployment and execution of the vulnerable system.
Privileges Required: This metric describes the level of privileges an attacker must possess prior to successfully exploiting the vulnerability. The method by which the attacker obtains privileged credentials prior to the attack (e.g., free trial accounts), is outside the scope of this metric. Generally, self-service provisioned accounts do not constitute a privilege requirement if the attacker can grant themselves privileges as part of the attack.
User interaction: This metric captures the requirement for a human user, other than the attacker, to participate in the successful compromise of the vulnerable system. This metric determines whether the vulnerability can be exploited solely at the will of the attacker, or whether a separate user (or user-initiated process) must participate in some manner.
Vulnerable System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality: This metric measures the impact to the confidentiality of the information managed by the VULNERABLE SYSTEM due to a successfully exploited vulnerability. Confidentiality refers to limiting information access and disclosure to only authorized users, as well as preventing access by, or disclosure to, unauthorized ones.
Integrity: This metric measures the impact to integrity of a successfully exploited vulnerability. Integrity refers to the trustworthiness and veracity of information. Integrity of the VULNERABLE SYSTEM is impacted when an attacker makes unauthorized modification of system data. Integrity is also impacted when a system user can repudiate critical actions taken in the context of the system (e.g. due to insufficient logging).
Availability: This metric measures the impact to the availability of the VULNERABLE SYSTEM resulting from a successfully exploited vulnerability. While the Confidentiality and Integrity impact metrics apply to the loss of confidentiality or integrity of data (e.g., information, files) used by the system, this metric refers to the loss of availability of the impacted system itself, such as a networked service (e.g., web, database, email). Since availability refers to the accessibility of information resources, attacks that consume network bandwidth, processor cycles, or disk space all impact the availability of a system.
Subsequent System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality: This metric measures the impact to the confidentiality of the information managed by the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM due to a successfully exploited vulnerability. Confidentiality refers to limiting information access and disclosure to only authorized users, as well as preventing access by, or disclosure to, unauthorized ones.
Integrity: This metric measures the impact to integrity of a successfully exploited vulnerability. Integrity refers to the trustworthiness and veracity of information. Integrity of the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM is impacted when an attacker makes unauthorized modification of system data. Integrity is also impacted when a system user can repudiate critical actions taken in the context of the system (e.g. due to insufficient logging).
Availability: This metric measures the impact to the availability of the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM resulting from a successfully exploited vulnerability. While the Confidentiality and Integrity impact metrics apply to the loss of confidentiality or integrity of data (e.g., information, files) used by the system, this metric refers to the loss of availability of the impacted system itself, such as a networked service (e.g., web, database, email). Since availability refers to the accessibility of information resources, attacks that consume network bandwidth, processor cycles, or disk space all impact the availability of a system.
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

EPSS score

Weaknesses

CVE ID

No known CVE

GHSA ID

GHSA-vp58-j275-797x

Credits

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