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CVE-2024-39317

Wagtail regular expression denial-of-service via search query parsing

6.5 MediumFix available

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. A bug in Wagtail's parse_query_string would result in it taking a long time to process suitably crafted inputs. When used to parse sufficiently long strings of characters without a space, parse_query_string would take an unexpectedly large amount of time to process, resulting in a denial of service. In an initial Wagtail installation, the vulnerability can be exploited by any Wagtail admin user. It cannot be exploited by end users. If your Wagtail site has a custom search implementation which uses parse_query_string, it may be exploitable by other users (e.g. unauthenticated users). Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 5.2.6, 6.0.6 and 6.1.3.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
Low
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

0.61%Up 0.6 points since Jul 12, 2024
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 6.5

Wagtail regular expression denial-of-service via search query parsing

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. A bug in Wagtail's parse_query_string would result in it taking a long time to process suitably crafted inputs. When used to parse sufficiently long strings of characters without a space, parse_query_string would take an unexpectedly large amount of time to process, resulting in a denial of service. In an initial Wagtail installation, the vulnerability can be exploited by any Wagtail admin user. It cannot be exploited by end users. If your Wagtail site has a custom search implementation which uses parse_query_string, it may be exploitable by other users (e.g. unauthenticated users). Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 5.2.6, 6.0.6 and 6.1.3.

Record
CVE-2024-39317
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-1333
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2024-0186 6.5

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. A bug in Wagtail's parse_query_string would result in it taking a long time to process suitably crafted inputs. When used to parse sufficiently long strings of characters without a space, parse_query_string would take an unexpectedly large amount of time to process, resulting in a denial of service. In an initial Wagtail installation, the vulnerability can be exploited by any Wagtail admin user. It cannot be exploited by end users. If your Wagtail site has a custom search implementation which uses parse_query_string, it may be exploitable by other users (e.g. unauthenticated users). Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 5.2.6, 6.0.6 and 6.1.3.

Record
EUVD-2024-0186
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-jmp3-39vp-fwg8 7.1

Wagtail regular expression denial-of-service via search query parsing

Impact

A bug in Wagtail's parse_query_string would result in it taking a long time to process suitably crafted inputs. When used to parse sufficiently long strings of characters without a space, parse_query_string would take an unexpectedly large amount of time to process, resulting in a denial of service.

In an initial Wagtail installation, the vulnerability can be exploited by any Wagtail admin user. It cannot be exploited by end users. If your Wagtail site has a custom search implementation which uses parse_query_string, it may be exploitable by other users (e.g. unauthenticated users).

Patches

Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 5.2.6, 6.0.6 and 6.1.3.

This vulnerability affects all unpatched versions from Wagtail 2.0 onwards.

Workarounds

Site owners who are unable to upgrade to a patched version can limit the length of search terms passed to parse_query_string. Whilst the performance characteristics will depend on your hosting environment, 1000 characters has been shown to still be fairly fast, without triggering this vulnerability.

No workaround is available for the Wagtail admin usage.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Jake Howard for reporting this issue.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Record
GHSA-jmp3-39vp-fwg8
CVSS 4.0
7.1 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-1333
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 6.5

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. A bug in Wagtail's parse_query_string would result in it taking a long time to process suitably crafted inputs. When used to parse sufficiently long strings of characters without a space, parse_query_string would take an unexpectedly large amount of time to process, resulting in a denial of service. In an initial Wagtail installation, the vulnerability can be exploited by any Wagtail admin user. It cannot be exploited by end users. If your Wagtail site has a custom search implementation which uses parse_query_string, it may be exploitable by other users (e.g. unauthenticated users). Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 5.2.6, 6.0.6 and 6.1.3.

Record
CVE-2024-39317
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 3.1
4.9 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-1333
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 6.5

Wagtail regular expression denial-of-service via search query parsing

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. A bug in Wagtail's parse_query_string would result in it taking a long time to process suitably crafted inputs. When used to parse sufficiently long strings of characters without a space, parse_query_string would take an unexpectedly large amount of time to process, resulting in a denial of service. In an initial Wagtail installation, the vulnerability can be exploited by any Wagtail admin user. It cannot be exploited by end users. If your Wagtail site has a custom search implementation which uses parse_query_string, it may be exploitable by other users (e.g. unauthenticated users). Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 5.2.6, 6.0.6 and 6.1.3.

Record
CVE-2024-39317
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-1333
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-jmp3-39vp-fwg8 7.1

Wagtail regular expression denial-of-service via search query parsing

Impact

A bug in Wagtail's parse_query_string would result in it taking a long time to process suitably crafted inputs. When used to parse sufficiently long strings of characters without a space, parse_query_string would take an unexpectedly large amount of time to process, resulting in a denial of service.

In an initial Wagtail installation, the vulnerability can be exploited by any Wagtail admin user. It cannot be exploited by end users. If your Wagtail site has a custom search implementation which uses parse_query_string, it may be exploitable by other users (e.g. unauthenticated users).

Patches

Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 5.2.6, 6.0.6 and 6.1.3.

This vulnerability affects all unpatched versions from Wagtail 2.0 onwards.

Workarounds

Site owners who are unable to upgrade to a patched version can limit the length of search terms passed to parse_query_string. Whilst the performance characteristics will depend on your hosting environment, 1000 characters has been shown to still be fairly fast, without triggering this vulnerability.

No workaround is available for the Wagtail admin usage.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Jake Howard for reporting this issue.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Record
GHSA-jmp3-39vp-fwg8
CVSS 4.0
7.1 HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-1333
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVPYSEC-2024-86 4.9

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. A bug in Wagtail's parse_query_string would result in it taking a long time to process suitably crafted inputs. When used to parse sufficiently long strings of characters without a space, parse_query_string would take an unexpectedly large amount of time to process, resulting in a denial of service. In an initial Wagtail installation, the vulnerability can be exploited by any Wagtail admin user. It cannot be exploited by end users. If your Wagtail site has a custom search implementation which uses parse_query_string, it may be exploitable by other users (e.g. unauthenticated users). Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 5.2.6, 6.0.6 and 6.1.3.

Record
PYSEC-2024-86
CVSS 3.1
4.9 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVROOT-APP-PYPI-CVE-2024-39317 No score

CVE-2024-39317 in rootio-wagtail - Patched by Root

Root has patched CVE-2024-39317 in the rootio-wagtail package for Root:PyPI. Multiple fixed versions available.

Record
ROOT-APP-PYPI-CVE-2024-39317
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
wagtail
PyPI
 6.0 up to 6.0.6
6.0.6
wagtail
PyPI
 6.1 up to 6.1.3
6.1.3
wagtail
PyPI
 2.0 up to 5.2.6
5.2.6
wagtail
PyPI
 6.0 up to 6.0.6, plus listed versions
6.0.16.0.26.0.36.0.46.0.5
6.0.6
wagtail
PyPI
 6.1 up to 6.1.3, plus listed versions
6.1.16.1.2
6.1.3
wagtail
PyPI
 2.0 up to 5.2.6, plus listed versions
2.0.12.0.22.12.1.12.1.2
Show 45 moreShow less
2.1.32.102.10.12.10.22.10rc12.10rc22.112.11.12.11.22.11.32.11.42.11.52.11.62.11.72.11.82.11.92.11rc12.122.12.12.12.22.12.32.12.42.12.52.12.62.12rc12.132.13.12.13.22.13.32.13.42.13.52.13rc12.13rc22.13rc32.142.14.12.14.22.14rc12.152.15.12.15.22.15.32.15.42.15.52.15.6
5.2.6
wagtail
PyPI
 6.0 up to 6.0.6, 6.1 up to 6.1.3, 2.0 up to 5.2.6, plus listed versions
2.0.12.0.22.12.1.12.1.2
Show 45 moreShow less
2.1.32.102.10.12.10.22.10rc12.10rc22.112.11.12.11.22.11.32.11.42.11.52.11.62.11.72.11.82.11.92.11rc12.122.12.12.12.22.12.32.12.42.12.52.12.62.12rc12.132.13.12.13.22.13.32.13.42.13.52.13rc12.13rc22.13rc32.142.14.12.14.22.14rc12.152.15.12.15.22.15.32.15.42.15.52.15.6
6.0.66.1.35.2.6
rootio-wagtail
Root:PyPI
 before 4.2.3+root.io.1
4.2.3+root.io.1

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
aliasesEUVD
first indexedCVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2024-39317 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 6.5) in Torchbox Wagtail, published July 11, 2024. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.61%, the 49th percentile. Fixed in wagtail 6.0.6.

References

This page doesn't list everything

Left out here: 239 versions. The JSON record has them.

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