CVE-2021-32677
Publication date 9 June 2021
Last updated 26 August 2025
Ubuntu priority
Cvss 3 Severity Score
Description
FastAPI is a web framework for building APIs with Python 3.6+ based on standard Python type hints. FastAPI versions lower than 0.65.2 that used cookies for authentication in path operations that received JSON payloads sent by browsers were vulnerable to a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack. In versions lower than 0.65.2, FastAPI would try to read the request payload as JSON even if the content-type header sent was not set to application/json or a compatible JSON media type (e.g. application/geo+json). A request with a content type of text/plain containing JSON data would be accepted and the JSON data would be extracted. Requests with content type text/plain are exempt from CORS preflights, for being considered Simple requests. The browser will execute them right away including cookies, and the text content could be a JSON string that would be parsed and accepted by the FastAPI application. This is fixed in FastAPI 0.65.2. The request data is now parsed as JSON only if the content-type header is application/json or another JSON compatible media type like application/geo+json. It's best to upgrade to the latest FastAPI, but if updating is not possible then a middleware or a dependency that checks the content-type header and aborts the request if it is not application/json or another JSON compatible content type can act as a mitigating workaround.
Status
| Package | Ubuntu Release | Status |
|---|---|---|
| fastapi | 25.10 questing |
Not affected
|
| 24.04 LTS noble |
Not affected
|
|
| 22.04 LTS jammy |
Vulnerable
|
|
| 20.04 LTS focal | Not in release | |
| 18.04 LTS bionic | Not in release | |
| 16.04 LTS xenial | Ignored end of standard support | |
| 14.04 LTS trusty | Not in release |
Severity score breakdown
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Base score |
|
| Attack vector | Network |
| Attack complexity | Low |
| Privileges required | None |
| User interaction | None |
| Scope | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | Low |
| Integrity impact | High |
| Availability impact | None |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N |