Medium

Potential Captcha Validate Bypass in flask-session-captcha

  • Disclosed: 25.04.2022
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 12:19

Impact

flask-session-captcha is a package which allows users to extend Flask by adding an image based captcha stored in a server side session.

The captcha.validate() function would return None if passed no value (e.g. by submitting a request with an empty form).

If implementing users were checking the return value to be False, the captcha verification check could be bypassed.

Sample vulnerable code:

python
if captcha.validate() == False:
    ... # abort
else:
   ... # do stuff

Patches

A new version (1.2.1) is available that fixes the issue.

Workarounds

Users can workaround the issue by not explicitly checking that the value is False.

Checking the return value less explicitly should still work.

python
if not captcha.validate():
    ... # abort
else:
   ... # do stuff
python
if captcha.validate():
    ... # do stuff
else:
   ... # abort

References

https://github.com/Tethik/flask-session-captcha/pull/27

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Python (PyPI) flask-session-captcha < 1.2.1 1.2.1

References

CVSS score 5.3/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-253, CWE-394, CWE-754
Platform
Python (PyPI)
Package
flask-session-captcha
Disclosed
25.04.2022
Updated
11.10.2026 12:19

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2022-193 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-7r87-cj48-wj45 - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: flask-session-captcha

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Python (PyPI)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

This is the only known vulnerability of this package.

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