Denial of Service Vulnerability in Django Framework from Django Software Foundation

CVE-2024-45230

What is CVE-2024-45230?

CVE-2024-45230 is a denial of service vulnerability identified in the Django framework, which is maintained by the Django Software Foundation. Django is a widely-used open-source web framework that aids developers in building robust web applications efficiently. This vulnerability affects specific template filters in earlier versions of Django, enabling attackers to cause disruptions in service through the processing of specially crafted inputs. Such a denial of service could hinder an organization's online operations, rendering websites inoperable and potentially damaging public perception.

Technical Details

The vulnerability resides in the urlize() and urlizetrunc() template filters in Django versions 5.1 prior to 5.1.1, 5.0 prior to 5.0.9, and 4.2 prior to 4.2.16. It is triggered by the handling of exceptionally large inputs containing particular sequences of characters. When processed, these inputs can lead to excessive resource consumption, effectively exhausting server capacity and resulting in degraded performance or complete service outages.

Potential impact of CVE-2024-45230

1. Service Disruption: The primary impact of CVE-2024-45230 is the potential for significant service interruptions. Organizations relying on Django-based applications may experience outages, affecting accessibility for users and clients.

2. Resource Exhaustion: Attackers could exploit this vulnerability to overload server resources, leading to impacts on performance. This resource exhaustion can slow down applications or even crash web servers.

3. Reputation Damage: Frequent downtime or unavailability due to exploitation of this vulnerability may erode user trust and damage an organization's reputation, resulting in lost business opportunities or diminished customer satisfaction.

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