GHSA-73M2-3PWG-5FGC
Vulnerability from github – Published: 2020-02-04 03:07 – Updated: 2024-11-19 15:34Impact
When waitress receives a header that contains invalid characters it will cause the regular expression engine to catastrophically backtrack causing the process to use 100% CPU time and blocking any other interactions.
This would allow an attacker to send a single request with an invalid header and take the service offline.
Invalid header example:
Bad-header: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\x10
Increasing the number of x's in the header will increase the amount of time Waitress spends in the regular expression engine.
This issue was introduced in version 1.4.2 when the regular expression was updated to attempt to match the behaviour required by errata associated with RFC7230.
Patches
The regular expression that is used to validate incoming headers has been updated in version 1.4.3, it is recommended that people upgrade to the new version of Waitress as soon as possible.
Workarounds
If you have deployed a reverse proxy in front of Waitress it may already be rejecting requests that include invalid headers.
Thanks
The Pylons Project would like to thank Fil Zembowicz for reaching out and disclosing this vulnerability!
References
Catastrophic backtracking explained: https://www.regular-expressions.info/catastrophic.html
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- open an issue at https://github.com/Pylons/waitress/issues (if not sensitive or security related)
- email the Pylons Security mailing list: pylons-project-security@googlegroups.com (if security related)
{
"affected": [
{
"package": {
"ecosystem": "PyPI",
"name": "waitress"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "1.4.2"
},
{
"fixed": "1.4.3"
}
],
"type": "ECOSYSTEM"
}
],
"versions": [
"1.4.2"
]
}
],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2020-5236"
],
"database_specific": {
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-400"
],
"github_reviewed": true,
"github_reviewed_at": "2020-02-04T03:06:40Z",
"nvd_published_at": null,
"severity": "MODERATE"
},
"details": "### Impact\n\nWhen waitress receives a header that contains invalid characters it will cause the regular expression engine to catastrophically backtrack causing the process to use 100% CPU time and blocking any other interactions.\n\nThis would allow an attacker to send a single request with an invalid header and take the service offline.\n\nInvalid header example:\n\n```\nBad-header: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\\x10\n```\n\nIncreasing the number of `x`\u0027s in the header will increase the amount of time Waitress spends in the regular expression engine.\n\nThis issue was introduced in version 1.4.2 when the regular expression was updated to attempt to match the behaviour required by errata associated with RFC7230.\n\n### Patches\n\nThe regular expression that is used to validate incoming headers has been updated in version 1.4.3, it is recommended that people upgrade to the new version of Waitress as soon as possible.\n\n### Workarounds\n\nIf you have deployed a reverse proxy in front of Waitress it may already be rejecting requests that include invalid headers.\n\n### Thanks\n\nThe Pylons Project would like to thank [Fil Zembowicz](https://github.com/fzembow) for reaching out and disclosing this vulnerability!\n\n### References\n\nCatastrophic backtracking explained: https://www.regular-expressions.info/catastrophic.html\n\n### For more information\nIf you have any questions or comments about this advisory:\n\n- open an issue at https://github.com/Pylons/waitress/issues (if not sensitive or security related)\n- email the Pylons Security mailing list: pylons-project-security@googlegroups.com (if security related)",
"id": "GHSA-73m2-3pwg-5fgc",
"modified": "2024-11-19T15:34:34Z",
"published": "2020-02-04T03:07:31Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/Pylons/waitress/security/advisories/GHSA-73m2-3pwg-5fgc"
},
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-5236"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/Pylons/waitress/commit/6e46f9e3f014d64dd7d1e258eaf626e39870ee1f"
},
{
"type": "PACKAGE",
"url": "https://github.com/Pylons/waitress"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/waitress/PYSEC-2020-155.yaml"
}
],
"schema_version": "1.4.0",
"severity": [
{
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
"type": "CVSS_V3"
},
{
"score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N",
"type": "CVSS_V4"
}
],
"summary": "Catastrophic backtracking in regex allows Denial of Service in Waitress"
}
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.