pyLoad insufficient session expiration after permission changes

Executive brief

pyLoad, a download management tool, fails to terminate active user sessions when an administrator changes that user's permissions. This means a user whose access was revoked or restricted can continue to perform unauthorized actions as long as their original session remains active. This could lead to unauthorized data access or management actions that the administrator intended to block.

Technical details

A session management vulnerability (CWE-613) exists in pyLoad where user permissions are not re-validated for active sessions following an administrative change. When an administrator modifies or revokes a user's privileges, the application fails to invalidate existing session tokens or refresh the permission set associated with those tokens. Consequently, a user with an established session can continue to perform actions and access resources that their updated permissions should prohibit. The attack requires a pre-existing valid session to be active during the permission change. A fix was identified in commit e95804fb0d06cbb07d2ba380fc494d9ff89b68c1.

Affected products

• pyLoad pyload-ng <= 0.5.0b3.dev97

Timeline

• 2026-04-13: disclosed
• 2026-04-14: advisory

References

• https://api.github.com/users/PinkDraconian
• https://github.com/PinkDraconian
• https://api.github.com/users/PinkDraconian/gists%7B/gist_id%7D
• https://api.github.com/users/PinkDraconian/repos
• https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/44903767?v=4
• https://api.github.com/users/PinkDraconian/events%7B/privacy%7D