Description

Scriban has an authorization bypass due to stale include cache surviving TemplateContext.Reset()

Summary

TemplateContext.Reset() claims that a TemplateContext can be reused safely on the same thread, but it does not clear CachedTemplates. If an application pools TemplateContext objects and uses an ITemplateLoader that resolves content per request, tenant, or user, a previously authorized include can be served to later renders without calling TemplateLoader.Load() again.

Details

The relevant code path is:

TemplateContext.Reset() only clears output, globals, cultures, and source files in src/Scriban/TemplateContext.cs lines 877–902.

CachedTemplates is initialized once and kept on the context in src/Scriban/TemplateContext.cs line 197.

include resolves templates through IncludeFunction.Invoke() in src/Scriban/Functions/IncludeFunction.cs lines 29–43.

IncludeFunction.Invoke() calls TemplateContext.GetOrCreateTemplate() in src/Scriban/TemplateContext.cs lines 1249–1256.

If a template path is already present in CachedTemplates, Scriban returns the cached compiled template and does not call TemplateLoader.Load() again.

This becomes a security issue when ITemplateLoader.Load() returns request-dependent content. A first render can prime the cache with an admin-only or tenant-specific template, and later renders on the same reused TemplateContext will receive that stale template even after Reset().

Proof of Concept

Setup

mkdir scriban-poc1
cd scriban-poc1
dotnet new console --framework net8.0
dotnet add package Scriban --version 6.6.0

Program.cs

using Scriban;
using Scriban.Parsing;
using Scriban.Runtime;

var loader = new SwitchingLoader();
var context = new TemplateContext
{
    TemplateLoader = loader,...
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Run

dotnet run

Actual Output

first=admin-only
second=admin-only

Expected Output

first=admin-only
second=guest-view

The second render should reload the template after Reset(), but it instead reuses the cached compiled template from the previous render.

Impact

This is a cross-render data isolation issue. Any application that reuses TemplateContext objects and uses a request-dependent ITemplateLoader can leak previously authorized template content across requests, users, or tenants.

The issue impacts applications that:

Pool or reuse TemplateContext

Call Reset() between requests

Use include

Resolve include content based on request-specific state

Mitigation

Aliases

References