CVE-2025-24370

Django-Unicorn adds modern reactive component functionality to Django templates. Affected versions of Django-Unicorn are vulnerable to python class pollution vulnerability. The vulnerability arises from the core functionality set_property_value, which can be remotely triggered by users by crafting appropriate component requests and feeding in values of second and third parameter to the vulnerable function, leading to arbitrary changes to the python runtime status. With this finding at least five ways of vulnerability exploitation have been observed, stably resulting in Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Denial of Service (DoS), and Authentication Bypass attacks in almost every Django-Unicorn-based application. This issue has been addressed in version 0.62.0 and all users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Django-Unicorn adds modern reactive component functionality to Django templates. Affected versions of Django-Unicorn are vulnerable to python class pollution vulnerability. The vulnerability arises from the core functionality set_property_value, which can be remotely triggered by users by crafting appropriate component requests and feeding in values of second and third parameter to the vulnerable function, leading to arbitrary changes to the python runtime status. With this finding at least five ways of vulnerability exploitation have been observed, stably resulting in Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Denial of Service (DoS), and Authentication Bypass attacks in almost every Django-Unicorn-based application. This issue has been addressed in version 0.62.0 and all users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Summary

Django-Unicorn is vulnerable to python class pollution vulnerability, a new type of vulnerability categorized under CWE-915. The vulnerability arises from the core functionality set_property_value, which can be remotely triggered by users by crafting appropriate component requests and feeding in values of second and third parameter to the vulnerable function, leading to arbitrary changes to the python runtime status.

At least five ways of vulnerability exploitation have been found, stably resulting in Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Denial of Service (DoS), and Authentication Bypass attacks in almost every Django-Unicorn-based application.

Analysis of Vulnerable Function

By taking a look at the vulnerable function set_property_value located at: django_unicorn/views/action_parsers/utils.py. You can observe the functionality is responsible for modifying a property value of an object.

The property is specified by a dotted form of path at the second parameter property_name, where nested reference to object is supported, and base object and the assigned value is given by the first parameter component and third parameter property_value.

# https://github.com/adamghill/django-unicorn/blob/7dcb01009c3c4653b24e0fb06c7bc0f9d521cbb0/django_unicorn/views/action_parsers/utils.py#L10
def set_property_value(
    component,
    property_name,
    property_value
) -> None:
    ...
    property_name_parts = property_name.split(".")
    component_or_field = component
    ...
    for idx, property_name_part in enumerate(property_name_parts):
        if hasattr(component_or_field, property_name_part):
            if idx == len(property_name_parts) - 1:
                ...
                setattr(component_or_field, property_name_part, property_value)
                ...
            else:
                component_or_field = getattr(component_or_field, property_name_part)
                ...
        elif isinstance(component_or_field, dict):
            if idx == len(property_name_parts) - 1:
                component_or_field[property_name_part] = property_value
				...
            else:
                component_or_field = component_or_field[property_name_part]
				...
        elif isinstance(component_or_field, (QuerySet, list)):
            property_name_part_int = int(property_name_part)

            if idx == len(property_name_parts) - 1:
                component_or_field[property_name_part_int] = property_value  # type: ignore[index]
                ...
            else:
                component_or_field = component_or_field[property_name_part_int]  # type: ignore[index]
                ...
        else:
            break

Meanwhile, this functionality can be directly triggered by a component request, one of the core functionalities of the project, by specifying the request type as syncInput and payload object would be fed in the dotted-path (2nd) parameter and assigned value (3rd) parameter of the vulnerable function.

POST /unicorn/message/COMPONENT_NAME

{
    "id": 123,
    "actionQueue":[
        {
          "type": "syncInput",
          "payload": {
          "name": "DOTTED_PATH",
          "value":"ASSIGNED_VALUE"
          }
    		}
    ],
    "data": {XXX},
    "epoch": "123",
    "checksum": "XXXX"
}

You are now aware of that users from the remote can fully control the property_name and property_value of the vulnerable function. By default the preperty value overwrite can only be performed on the component object, which is always the first parameter of the function.

However, the functionality failed to count in the situation where bad actors can modify the normal path to traverse to other objects in the python runtime, by leveraging the magic attributes. For example, if the property_name was set to __init__.__globals__, the component context would change to global context of the component module, which means…

Django-Unicorn adds modern reactive component functionality to Django templates. Affected versions of Django-Unicorn are vulnerable to python class pollution vulnerability. The vulnerability arises from the core functionality set_property_value, which can be remotely triggered by users by crafting appropriate component requests and feeding in values of second and third parameter to the vulnerable function, leading to arbitrary changes to the python runtime status. With this finding at least five ways of vulnerability exploitation have been observed, stably resulting in Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Denial of Service (DoS), and Authentication Bypass attacks in almost every Django-Unicorn-based application. This issue has been addressed in version 0.62.0 and all users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Django-Unicorn adds modern reactive component functionality to Django templates. Affected versions of Django-Unicorn are vulnerable to python class pollution vulnerability. The vulnerability arises from the core functionality set_property_value, which can be remotely triggered by users by crafting appropriate component requests and feeding in values of second and third parameter to the vulnerable function, leading to arbitrary changes to the python runtime status. With this finding at least five ways of vulnerability exploitation have been observed, stably resulting in Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Denial of Service (DoS), and Authentication Bypass attacks in almost every Django-Unicorn-based application. This issue has been addressed in version 0.62.0 and all users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Summary

Django-Unicorn is vulnerable to python class pollution vulnerability, a new type of vulnerability categorized under CWE-915. The vulnerability arises from the core functionality set_property_value, which can be remotely triggered by users by crafting appropriate component requests and feeding in values of second and third parameter to the vulnerable function, leading to arbitrary changes to the python runtime status.

At least five ways of vulnerability exploitation have been found, stably resulting in Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Denial of Service (DoS), and Authentication Bypass attacks in almost every Django-Unicorn-based application.

Analysis of Vulnerable Function

By taking a look at the vulnerable function set_property_value located at: django_unicorn/views/action_parsers/utils.py. You can observe the functionality is responsible for modifying a property value of an object.

The property is specified by a dotted form of path at the second parameter property_name, where nested reference to object is supported, and base object and the assigned value is given by the first parameter component and third parameter property_value.

# https://github.com/adamghill/django-unicorn/blob/7dcb01009c3c4653b24e0fb06c7bc0f9d521cbb0/django_unicorn/views/action_parsers/utils.py#L10
def set_property_value(
    component,
    property_name,
    property_value
) -> None:
    ...
    property_name_parts = property_name.split(".")
    component_or_field = component
    ...
    for idx, property_name_part in enumerate(property_name_parts):
        if hasattr(component_or_field, property_name_part):
            if idx == len(property_name_parts) - 1:
                ...
                setattr(component_or_field, property_name_part, property_value)
                ...
            else:
                component_or_field = getattr(component_or_field, property_name_part)
                ...
        elif isinstance(component_or_field, dict):
            if idx == len(property_name_parts) - 1:
                component_or_field[property_name_part] = property_value
				...
            else:
                component_or_field = component_or_field[property_name_part]
				...
        elif isinstance(component_or_field, (QuerySet, list)):
            property_name_part_int = int(property_name_part)

            if idx == len(property_name_parts) - 1:
                component_or_field[property_name_part_int] = property_value  # type: ignore[index]
                ...
            else:
                component_or_field = component_or_field[property_name_part_int]  # type: ignore[index]
                ...
        else:
            break

Meanwhile, this functionality can be directly triggered by a component request, one of the core functionalities of the project, by specifying the request type as syncInput and payload object would be fed in the dotted-path (2nd) parameter and assigned value (3rd) parameter of the vulnerable function.

POST /unicorn/message/COMPONENT_NAME

{
    "id": 123,
    "actionQueue":[
        {
          "type": "syncInput",
          "payload": {
          "name": "DOTTED_PATH",
          "value":"ASSIGNED_VALUE"
          }
    		}
    ],
    "data": {XXX},
    "epoch": "123",
    "checksum": "XXXX"
}

You are now aware of that users from the remote can fully control the property_name and property_value of the vulnerable function. By default the preperty value overwrite can only be performed on the component object, which is always the first parameter of the function.

However, the functionality failed to count in the situation where bad actors can modify the normal path to traverse to other objects in the python runtime, by leveraging the magic attributes. For example, if the property_name was set to __init__.__globals__, the component context would change to global context of the component module, which means…

Summary

Django-Unicorn is vulnerable to python class pollution vulnerability, a new type of vulnerability categorized under CWE-915. The vulnerability arises from the core functionality set_property_value, which can be remotely triggered by users by crafting appropriate component requests and feeding in values of second and third parameter to the vulnerable function, leading to arbitrary changes to the python runtime status.

At least five ways of vulnerability exploitation have been found, stably resulting in Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Denial of Service (DoS), and Authentication Bypass attacks in almost every Django-Unicorn-based application.

Analysis of Vulnerable Function

By taking a look at the vulnerable function set_property_value located at: django_unicorn/views/action_parsers/utils.py. You can observe the functionality is responsible for modifying a property value of an object.

The property is specified by a dotted form of path at the second parameter property_name, where nested reference to object is supported, and base object and the assigned value is given by the first parameter component and third parameter property_value.

# https://github.com/adamghill/django-unicorn/blob/7dcb01009c3c4653b24e0fb06c7bc0f9d521cbb0/django_unicorn/views/action_parsers/utils.py#L10
 def set_property_value(
    component,
    property_name,
    property_value
 ) -> None:
    ...
    property_name_parts = property_name.split(".")
    component_or_field = component
    ...
    for idx, property_name_part in enumerate(property_name_parts):
        if hasattr(component_or_field, property_name_part):
            if idx == len(property_name_parts) - 1:
                ...
                setattr(component_or_field, property_name_part, property_value)
                ...
            else:
                component_or_field = getattr(component_or_field, property_name_part)
                ...
        elif isinstance(component_or_field, dict):
            if idx == len(property_name_parts) - 1:
                component_or_field[property_name_part] = property_value
				...
            else:
                component_or_field = component_or_field[property_name_part]
				...
        elif isinstance(component_or_field, (QuerySet, list)):
            property_name_part_int = int(property_name_part)

            if idx == len(property_name_parts) - 1:
                component_or_field[property_name_part_int] = property_value  # type: ignore[index]
                ...
            else:
                component_or_field = component_or_field[property_name_part_int]  # type: ignore[index]
                ...
        else:
            break

Meanwhile, this functionality can be directly triggered by a component request, one of the core functionalities of the project, by specifying the request type as syncInput and payload object would be fed in the dotted-path (2nd) parameter and assigned value (3rd) parameter of the vulnerable function.

POST /unicorn/message/COMPONENT_NAME

{
    "id": 123,
    "actionQueue":[
        {
          "type": "syncInput",
          "payload": {
          "name": "DOTTED_PATH",
          "value":"ASSIGNED_VALUE"
          }
    		}
    ],
    "data": {XXX},
    "epoch": "123",
    "checksum": "XXXX"
}

You are now aware of that users from the remote can fully control the property_name and property_value of the vulnerable function. By default the preperty value overwrite can only be performed on the component object, which is always the first parameter of the function.

However, the functionality failed to count in the situation where bad actors can modify the normal path to traverse to other objects in the python runtime, by leveraging the magic attributes. For example, if the property_name was set to __init__.__globals__, the component context would change to global context of the component module, which…