CVE-2023-28837
Wagtail vulnerable to denial-of-service via memory exhaustion when uploading large files
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- GitHub_M
Description
Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. Prior to versions 4.1.4 and 4.2.2, a memory exhaustion bug exists in Wagtail's handling of uploaded images and documents. For both images and documents, files are loaded into memory during upload for additional processing. A user with access to upload images or documents through the Wagtail admin interface could upload a file so large that it results in a crash of denial of service. The vulnerability is not exploitable by an ordinary site visitor without access to the Wagtail admin. It can only be exploited by admin users with permission to upload images or documents. Image uploads are restricted to 10MB by default, however this validation only happens on the frontend and on the backend after the vulnerable code. Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 4.1.4 and Wagtail 4.2.2). Site owners who are unable to upgrade to the new versions are encouraged to add extra protections outside of Wagtail to limit the size of uploaded files.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 10 days later
· 10 days later
Published
- 23 months later
· 23 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium4.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium4.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 1.1% · top 35% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.9.
Weakness
Affected products
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- PyPIwagtailGHSA-33pv-vcgh-jfg9 (opens in a new tab)
References (8)
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/security/advisories/GHSA-33pv-vcgh-jfg9 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/commit/3c0c64642b9e5b8d28b111263c7f4bddad6c3880 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/commit/c9d2fcd650a88d76ae122646142245e5927a9165 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/commit/cfa11bbe00dbe7ce8cd4c0bbfe2a898a690df2bf (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/commit/d4022310cbe497993459c3136311467c7ac6329a (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://docs.wagtail.org/en/stable/reference/settings.html#wagtailimages-max-upload-size (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/releases/tag/v4.1.4 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/wagtail/wagtail/releases/tag/v4.2.2 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-33pv-vcgh-jfg9 (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2023-28837)Record last updated .