Lax cookie parsing in http.cookies could be a security issue when combined

with non-standard cookie handling in some Web browsers.

Reported by Sergey Bobrov.

Lib/http/cookies.py

@@ -431,6 +431,7 @@ class Morsel(dict):
 _LegalCharsPatt  = r"[\w\d!#%&'~_`><@,:/\$\*\+\-\.\^\|\)\(\?\}\{\=]"
 _CookiePattern = re.compile(r"""
     (?x)                           # This is a verbose pattern
+    \s*                            # Optional whitespace at start of cookie
     (?P<key>                       # Start of group 'key'
     """ + _LegalCharsPatt + r"""+?   # Any word of at least one letter
     )                              # End of group 'key'
@@ -534,7 +535,7 @@ class BaseCookie(dict):
 
         while 0 <= i < n:
             # Start looking for a cookie
-            match = patt.search(str, i)
+            match = patt.match(str, i)
             if not match:
                 # No more cookies
                 break

Lib/test/test_http_cookies.py

@@ -179,6 +179,15 @@ class CookieTests(unittest.TestCase):
         </script>
         """)
 
+    def test_invalid_cookies(self):
+        # Accepting these could be a security issue
+        C = cookies.SimpleCookie()
+        for s in (']foo=x', '[foo=x', 'blah]foo=x', 'blah[foo=x'):
+            C.load(s)
+            self.assertEqual(dict(C), {})
+            self.assertEqual(C.output(), '')
+
+
 class MorselTests(unittest.TestCase):
     """Tests for the Morsel object."""
 

Misc/ACKS

@@ -131,6 +131,7 @@ Martin Bless
 Pablo Bleyer
 Erik van Blokland
 Eric Blossom
+Sergey Bobrov
 Finn Bock
 Paul Boddie
 Matthew Boedicker

Misc/NEWS

@@ -13,6 +13,10 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Lax cookie parsing in http.cookies could be a security issue when combined
+  with non-standard cookie handling in some Web browsers.  Reported by
+  Sergey Bobrov.
+
 - Issue #21766: Prevent a security hole in CGIHTTPServer by URL unquoting paths
   before checking for a CGI script at that path.