Application Passwords: Add a safer authorize flow for browser-based apps.#12191
Application Passwords: Add a safer authorize flow for browser-based apps.#12191KarunyaChavan wants to merge 1 commit into
Conversation
- Add success_format=form_post to return Application Password credentials via an auto-submitted POST instead of URL query parameters. - Validate success_format requests and restrict callback URLs to HTTP/HTTPS protocols.
|
Hi there! 👋 Thank you for your contribution to WordPress! 💖 It looks like this is your first pull request to No one monitors this repository for new pull requests. Pull requests must be attached to a Trac ticket to be considered for inclusion in WordPress Core. To attach a pull request to a Trac ticket, please include the ticket's full URL in your pull request description. Pull requests are never merged on GitHub. The WordPress codebase continues to be managed through the SVN repository that this GitHub repository mirrors. Please feel free to open pull requests to work on any contribution you are making. More information about how GitHub pull requests can be used to contribute to WordPress can be found in the Core Handbook. Please include automated tests. Including tests in your pull request is one way to help your patch be considered faster. To learn about WordPress' test suites, visit the Automated Testing page in the handbook. If you have not had a chance, please review the Contribute with Code page in the WordPress Core Handbook. The Developer Hub also documents the various coding standards that are followed:
Thank you, |
Test using WordPress PlaygroundThe changes in this pull request can previewed and tested using a WordPress Playground instance. WordPress Playground is an experimental project that creates a full WordPress instance entirely within the browser. Some things to be aware of
For more details about these limitations and more, check out the Limitations page in the WordPress Playground documentation. |
|
The following accounts have interacted with this PR and/or linked issues. I will continue to update these lists as activity occurs. You can also manually ask me to refresh this list by adding the Core Committers: Use this line as a base for the props when committing in SVN: To understand the WordPress project's expectations around crediting contributors, please review the Contributor Attribution page in the Core Handbook. |
1 participant
This PR fixes a security limitation in the Application Passwords authorization flow where generated credentials (site_url, user_login, password) are leaked into the browser's URL query string during the final callback redirection. By introducing a new success_format=form_post parameter, third-party applications can now securely receive credentials via an auto-submitted HTML form payload rather than URL parameters, preventing exposure in browser histories, proxy servers, and analytics tools.
Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/65110
What Changed?
Authorization Flow
Legacy Flow (unchanged)
If success_format is omitted or set to query, the existing behavior remains unchanged. The authorization flow completes with a standard GET redirect:
This ensures full backward compatibility for existing integrations.
Secure Flow (success_format=form_post)
When success_format=form_post is specified, the authorization flow completes by issuing a top-level POST request to the provided success_url.
The following values are transmitted in the POST body:
As a result, sensitive credentials no longer appear in the browser URL, browser history, intermediary logs, or analytics tooling. Applications can securely retrieve the values from the incoming POST payload.
Use of AI Tools
AI assistance: Yes
Tool(s): Google Antigravity
Model(s): Gemini 3.1 Pro
Used for: Used for adding tests for ensuring the applied patch.