Executive Summary

This vulnerability exists in Open WebUI versions prior to 0.8.11, where an attacker can bypass authorization checks when joining document rooms. The system checks note ownership only if the document ID starts with "note:" (colon), but internally document IDs are normalized by replacing colons with underscores. This mismatch allows an attacker to join a document room using "note_<id>" (underscore) instead of "note:<id>" (colon), bypassing the authorization check and accessing the same underlying document.

As a result, the attacker can retrieve the full contents of a victim's private note, potentially exposing sensitive information.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability allows any authenticated user to read other users' private notes without proper authorization. The attacker can access sensitive information such as credentials, internal documentation, or any private data stored in the victim's notes.

The impact is a confidentiality breach, exposing private and potentially sensitive information to unauthorized users.

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Detection Guidance

Detection of this vulnerability involves monitoring for unauthorized access attempts to document rooms using the 'note_<id>' format instead of the expected 'note:<id>' format in Open WebUI.

Since the attack requires an authenticated user and knowledge of the target note's ID, network or system logs should be inspected for Socket.IO join requests where document IDs contain underscores replacing colons.

Specific commands are not provided in the available resources, but administrators can review authentication logs and Socket.IO event logs for suspicious join events with document IDs using underscores.

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Mitigation Strategies

The immediate mitigation step is to upgrade Open WebUI to version 0.8.11 or later, where this vulnerability has been fixed.

Until the upgrade can be applied, restrict authenticated user access to trusted users only, and monitor for suspicious document join requests using the 'note_<id>' pattern.

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Compliance Impact

This vulnerability allows an authenticated attacker to access other users' private notes, potentially exposing sensitive personal or confidential information.

Such unauthorized disclosure of private data could lead to non-compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR or HIPAA, which require strict controls over access to personal and sensitive information.

Organizations using affected versions of Open WebUI may face increased risk of data breaches and regulatory penalties if this vulnerability is exploited.

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