MyTube is a self-hosted downloader and player for several video websites. A vulnerability present in version 1.7.65 and poetntially earlier versions allows unauthenticated users to bypass the mandatory authentication check in the roleBasedAuthMiddleware. By simply not providing an authentication cookie (making req.user undefined), a request is incorrectly passed through to downstream handlers. All users running MyTube with loginEnabled: true are impacted. This flaw allows an attacker to access and modify application settings via /api/settings, change administrative and visitor passwords, and access other protected routes that rely on this specific middleware. The problem is patched in v1.7.66. MyTube maintainers recommend all users upgrade to at least version v1.7.64 immediately to secure their instances. The fix ensures that the middleware explicitly blocks requests if a user is not authenticated, rather than defaulting to next(). Those who cannot upgrade immediately can mitigate risk by restricting network access by usi a firewall or reverse proxy (like Nginx) to restrict access to the /api/ endpoints to trusted IP addresses only or, if they are comfortable editing the source code, manually patch by locating roleBasedAuthMiddleware and ensuring that the logic defaults to an error (401 Unauthorized) when req.user is undefined, instead of calling next().
Weakness
The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check.
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mytube | Franklioxygen | * | 1.7.66 (excluding) |
Potential Mitigations
- Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) [REF-229] to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
- Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role.
- Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
- For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45].
- For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page.
- One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page.