https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/28b4ad38067bbdad34edfcd03ad2de5f06387e53
commit: 28b4ad38067bbdad34edfcd03ad2de5f06387e53
branch: 3.14
author: Miss Islington (bot) <[email protected]>
committer: hugovk <[email protected]>
date: 2026-04-29T12:59:46+03:00
summary:

[3.14] gh-148169: Fix webbrowser `%action` substitution bypass of dash-prefix 
check (GH-148170) (#148516)

Co-authored-by: Stan Ulbrych <[email protected]>

files:
A Misc/NEWS.d/next/Security/2026-03-31-09-15-51.gh-issue-148169.EZJzz2.rst
M Lib/test/test_webbrowser.py
M Lib/webbrowser.py

diff --git a/Lib/test/test_webbrowser.py b/Lib/test/test_webbrowser.py
index 404b3a31a5d2c9..bfbcf112b0b085 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_webbrowser.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_webbrowser.py
@@ -119,6 +119,15 @@ def test_open_bad_new_parameter(self):
                        arguments=[URL],
                        kw=dict(new=999))
 
+    def test_reject_action_dash_prefixes(self):
+        browser = self.browser_class(name=CMD_NAME)
+        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            browser.open('%action--incognito')
+        # new=1: action is "--new-window", so "%action" itself expands to
+        # a dash-prefixed flag even with no dash in the original URL.
+        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            browser.open('%action', new=1)
+
 
 class EdgeCommandTest(CommandTestMixin, unittest.TestCase):
 
diff --git a/Lib/webbrowser.py b/Lib/webbrowser.py
index 0e0b5034e5f53d..97aad6eea509eb 100644
--- a/Lib/webbrowser.py
+++ b/Lib/webbrowser.py
@@ -274,7 +274,6 @@ def _invoke(self, args, remote, autoraise, url=None):
 
     def open(self, url, new=0, autoraise=True):
         sys.audit("webbrowser.open", url)
-        self._check_url(url)
         if new == 0:
             action = self.remote_action
         elif new == 1:
@@ -288,7 +287,9 @@ def open(self, url, new=0, autoraise=True):
             raise Error("Bad 'new' parameter to open(); "
                         f"expected 0, 1, or 2, got {new}")
 
-        args = [arg.replace("%s", url).replace("%action", action)
+        self._check_url(url.replace("%action", action))
+
+        args = [arg.replace("%action", action).replace("%s", url)
                 for arg in self.remote_args]
         args = [arg for arg in args if arg]
         success = self._invoke(args, True, autoraise, url)
diff --git 
a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Security/2026-03-31-09-15-51.gh-issue-148169.EZJzz2.rst 
b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Security/2026-03-31-09-15-51.gh-issue-148169.EZJzz2.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..45cdeebe1b6d64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Security/2026-03-31-09-15-51.gh-issue-148169.EZJzz2.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+A bypass in :mod:`webbrowser` allowed URLs prefixed with ``%action`` to pass
+the dash-prefix safety check.

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