CVE-2025-27154: Spotipy Spotipy's Cache File, Containing Spotify Vulnerability
HIGHCVE-2025-27154 is a HIGH spotipy's cache file, containing spotify vulnerability (CWE-276: Incorrect Default Permissions) affecting Spotipy libraries in the PyPI ecosystem. The issue involves spotipy's cache file, containing spotify auth token, is created with overly broad permissions. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 2.25.1.
CVE-2025-27154 at a Glance
How to Fix CVE-2025-27154
To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Spotipy dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.
pip install spotipy>=2.25.1
Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release:
pip show spotipy
How to Check if You Are Affected
To determine whether your Python environment is affected by CVE-2025-27154, inspect your installed packages using pip:
pip show spotipy
Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Spotipy in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 2.25.1), your application is affected.
Note: The pip show spotipy command checks currently installed packages in your active Python environment.
Technical Details
Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-276: Incorrect Default Permissions, where during installation, installed file permissions are set to allow anyone to modify those files. In Spotipy, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.
Source Advisory Statement
CVE-2025-27154 Affected Spotipy Versions
1 component(s)| Product / Package | Ecosystem | Affected Versions | Fixed Version |
|---|---|---|---|
|
spotipy
|
PyPI |
< 2.25.1
|
2.25.1
|
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2025-27154?
Which Spotipy versions are affected?
What version fixes CVE-2025-27154?
Is spotipy affected?
What CWE is associated with CVE-2025-27154?
How can I check PyPI dependencies for CVE-2025-27154?
Machine-readable OSV JSON
OSV v1.5 Schema
{
"schema_version" : "1.4.0",
"id" : "GHSA-pwhh-q4h6-w599",
"modified" : "2025-02-28T02:34:39Z",
"published" : "2025-02-28T02:34:38Z",
"aliases" : [ "CVE-2025-27154" ],
"summary" : "Spotipy's cache file, containing spotify auth token, is created with overly broad permissions",
"details" : "### Summary\n\nThe `CacheHandler` class creates a cache file to store the auth token here: https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/blob/master/spotipy/cache_handler.py#L93-L98\n\nThe file created has `rw-r--r--` (644) permissions by default, when it could be locked down to `rw-------` (600) permissions. I think `600` is a sensible default.\n\n\n\n### Details\n\nThis leads to overly broad exposure of the spotify auth token. If this token can be read by an attacker (another user on the machine, or a process running as another user), it can be used to perform administrative actions on the Spotify account, depending on the scope granted to the token.\n\n### PoC\n\nRun an application that uses spotipy with client creation like this:\n\n```python\nfrom pathlib import Path\nimport spotipy\nfrom os import getenv\n\ndef create_spotify_client(client_id: str, client_secret: str) -> spotipy.Spotify:\n \"\"\"Create and return an authenticated Spotify client.\n\n Args:\n client_id: Spotify API client ID\n client_secret: Spotify API client secret\n\n Returns:\n An authenticated Spotify client instance\n \"\"\"\n cache_path = Path.home() / \".cache\" / \"spotify-backup/.auth_cache\"\n cache_path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)\n cache_handler = spotipy.cache_handler.CacheFileHandler(cache_path=str(cache_path))\n\n client = spotipy.Spotify(\n auth_manager=spotipy.oauth2.SpotifyOAuth(\n client_id=client_id,\n client_secret=client_secret,\n redirect_uri=\"http://localhost:8000/callback\",\n cache_handler=cache_handler,\n scope=[\n \"user-library-read\",\n \"playlist-read-private\",\n \"playlist-read-collaborative\",\n ],\n )\n )\n\n return client\n\ncreate_spotify_client()\n```\n\nAnd then check the file permissions on the cache file that was created with:\n\n```bash\n$ ls -la ~/.cache/spotify-backup/.auth_cache`\n.rw-r--r--. alichtman alichtman 562 B Thu Feb 20 02:12:33 2025 /home/alichtman/.cache/spotify-backup/.auth_cache\n```\n\nIf this issue is combined with another misconfiguration, like having `o+r` permissions set on your home directory, an attacker will be able to read this file and steal this auth token.\n\nGood defense in depth would be to restrict read permissions on this cache file that contains an auth token\n\n### Impact\n\nPotential exposure of Spotify auth token to other users with access to the machine. A worst case scenario is if the token is granted all permissions, and can be used to do any of:\n\n- exfiltrate spotify likes / saved playlists\n- delete your content\n- modify your content w/o your permission\n\nIf someone were to discover an RCE in Spotify that you could trigger on a machine by having a song played (or song metadata parsed or something), this auth token could maybe be used to add a song to a playlist, or control playback (allowing further exploitation).",
"severity" : [ {
"type" : "CVSS_V4",
"score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
} ],
"affected" : [ {
"package" : {
"ecosystem" : "PyPI",
"name" : "spotipy"
},
"ranges" : [ {
"type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
"events" : [ {
"introduced" : "0"
}, {
"fixed" : "2.25.1"
} ]
} ]
} ],
"references" : [ {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/security/advisories/GHSA-pwhh-q4h6-w599"
}, {
"type" : "ADVISORY",
"url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-27154"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/commit/1ca453f6ef87a2a9e9876f52b6cb38d13532ccf2"
}, {
"type" : "PACKAGE",
"url" : "https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/blob/master/spotipy/cache_handler.py#L93-L98"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/releases/tag/2.25.1"
} ],
"database_specific" : {
"cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-276" ],
"severity" : "HIGH",
"github_reviewed" : true,
"github_reviewed_at" : "2025-02-28T02:34:38Z",
"nvd_published_at" : "2025-02-27T14:15:36Z"
}
}