vulnerability / NVI-00018363 / Revision 1
Wagtail regular expression denial-of-service via search query parsing
GitHub lists this reviewed advisory for wagtail, wagtail, wagtail. Published version ranges and source prerequisites are shown below; this is not an inspection of a visitor’s application.
This report has not inspected your inventory, configuration, deployed build, reachability or evidence. A catalog listing and a severity score do not establish exposure or compromise.
01 / Meaning
Why it matters
Published affected context helps an owner decide what evidence to gather. This report has not examined your application.
6.5 high
GitHub source severity; exploitability and local consequence require separate evidence.
As of · GitHub Advisory Database
02 / Applicability
The affected context
Affected versions, configuration prerequisites and known exclusions are public. Confirm each one against the deployed service.
wagtail
source listed>= 6.0, < 6.0.6
### 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 wo
wagtail
source listed>= 6.1, < 6.1.3
### 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 wo
wagtail
source listed>= 2.0, < 5.2.6
### 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 wo
03 / Response
What to do next
- investigate
Identify the exact component and deployed version, examine the linked publisher’s conditions, and retain evidence of any mitigation.
Confirm current vendor support, compatibility and deployment evidence. This report has not tested a fix in your system. GitHub Advisory Database
A fixed release is not deployment evidence.
Check current vendor support and compatibility. After making a change, verify the deployed build and relevant runtime conditions. Keep the evidence, owner and time. An updated lockfile alone does not prove what is running.
04 / Limits
What this report cannot establish
- Customer inventory, deployment, reachability and exploitation have not been inspected.
05 / Provenance
Sources you can inspect
Each assertion retains its source. Mirrored records may repeat one underlying publisher; additional links are not independent corroboration.
- GHSA-jmp3-39vp-fwg8 ↗
GitHub Advisory Database · vendor advisory
Observed . GitHub Advisory Database; CC-BY-4.0. Each advisory links its original attribution. Null normalizes fields.
Public revision history
Only published revisions appear here. Routine fetches do not create a material-change event.
- Revision 1 ·
First indexed by Null; source disclosure date is shown separately.