CVE-2024-39317
📋 TL;DR
This CVE describes a denial-of-service vulnerability in Wagtail's parse_query_string function where specially crafted long strings without spaces cause excessive processing time. In default Wagtail installations, only authenticated admin users can exploit this, but custom search implementations using parse_query_string may allow unauthenticated exploitation.
💻 Affected Systems
- Wagtail CMS
📦 What is this software?
Wagtail by Wagtail
Wagtail by Wagtail
Wagtail by Wagtail
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete service unavailability due to resource exhaustion from repeated exploitation, potentially affecting all users of the Wagtail application.
Likely Case
Temporary performance degradation or service disruption affecting admin functionality and potentially public search features if custom implementations exist.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper rate limiting, input validation, and monitoring in place to detect and block exploitation attempts.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires sending specially crafted long strings without spaces to parse_query_string. While no public PoC exists, the vulnerability is straightforward to exploit given the technical details in the advisory.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Wagtail 5.2.6, 6.0.6, or 6.1.3
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/security/advisories/GHSA-jmp3-39vp-fwg8
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Identify your Wagtail version. 2. Upgrade to Wagtail 5.2.6 if using 5.x, 6.0.6 if using 6.0.x, or 6.1.3 if using 6.1.x. 3. Restart your Wagtail application server. 4. Verify the fix by checking the version and testing search functionality.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Length Limitation
allImplement input validation to limit the length of query strings passed to parse_query_string
Implement middleware or view decorators to restrict query string length before processing
Rate Limiting
allApply rate limiting to search endpoints to prevent repeated exploitation attempts
Configure rate limiting using Django middleware or web server configuration
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to block excessively long query strings without spaces
- Monitor application performance metrics and logs for unusual query processing times
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if your Wagtail version is below 5.2.6, 6.0.6, or 6.1.3, and review custom search implementations for parse_query_string usageCheck Version:
python -c "import wagtail; print(wagtail.__version__)"Verify Fix Applied:
Confirm Wagtail version is 5.2.6, 6.0.6, or 6.1.3 or higher, and test search functionality with various inputs📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusually long processing times for search queries
- Repeated long query strings without spaces in access logs
- High CPU usage from Wagtail processes
Network Indicators:
- Multiple requests with unusually long query parameters
- Pattern of requests to search endpoints with no spaces in query strings
SIEM Query:
source="wagtail_logs" AND (message="parse_query_string" OR message="search") AND duration>5000ms🔗 References
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/commit/31b1e8532dfb1b70d8d37d22aff9cbde9109cdf2
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/commit/3c941136f79c48446e3858df46e5b668d7f83797
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/commit/b783c096b6d4fd2cfc05f9137a0be288850e99a2
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/security/advisories/GHSA-jmp3-39vp-fwg8
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/commit/31b1e8532dfb1b70d8d37d22aff9cbde9109cdf2
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/commit/3c941136f79c48446e3858df46e5b668d7f83797
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/commit/b783c096b6d4fd2cfc05f9137a0be288850e99a2
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/security/advisories/GHSA-jmp3-39vp-fwg8
