# CVE-2024-39317: Wagtail regular expression denial-of-service via search query parsing

> Attackers can cause denial of service in Wagtail CMS by submitting crafted search queries that trigger excessive processing time in the query parser.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 11 Jul 2024
- **Updated:** 2 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jmp3-39vp-fwg8, PYSEC-2024-86, ROOT-APP-PYPI-CVE-2024-39317

## What is CVE-2024-39317?

CVE-2024-39317 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in wagtail, published on 11 Jul 2024. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. 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). Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 5.2.6, 6.0.6 and 6.1.3.

Weakness: CWE-1333 (Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-39317?

7 open source packages ship an affected version, including wagtail. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `wagtail` | PyPI | From 2.0 | 5.2.6 |
| `wagtail` | PyPI | From 2.0 | 5.2.6 |
| `wagtail` | PyPI | From 6.0 | 6.0.6, 6.1.3, 5.2.6 |
| `wagtail` | PyPI | From 6.0 | 6.0.6 |
| `wagtail` | PyPI | From 6.0 | 6.0.6 |
| `wagtail` | PyPI | From 6.1 | 6.1.3 |
| `wagtail` | PyPI | From 6.1 | 6.1.3 |

Products: Torchbox Wagtail.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-39317?

Upgrade wagtail to a fixed version for your release line: 5.2.6, 6.0.6 or 6.1.3.

## Is CVE-2024-39317 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-39317 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in wagtail

- [CVE-2026-54263](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-54263/): Wagtail: Reflected XSS in dynamic image URL generator view (high 7.3)
- [CVE-2026-54261](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-54261/): Wagtail: Improper permission handling in image preview (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2026-44197](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-44197/): Wagtail: Improper permission handling when comparing revisions (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2026-44199](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-44199/): Wagtail: Improper permission handling when deleting form submissions (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2026-44200](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-44200/): Wagtail: Improper permission handling when copying pages (medium 6.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-39317 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-39317 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in wagtail, published on 11 Jul 2024. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-39317 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- wagtail (PyPI): affected from 2.0; fixed in 5.2.6
- wagtail (PyPI): affected from 2.0; fixed in 5.2.6
- wagtail (PyPI): affected from 6.0; fixed in 6.0.6, 6.1.3, 5.2.6
- wagtail (PyPI): affected from 6.0; fixed in 6.0.6
- wagtail (PyPI): affected from 6.0; fixed in 6.0.6
- wagtail (PyPI): affected from 6.1; fixed in 6.1.3
- wagtail (PyPI): affected from 6.1; fixed in 6.1.3

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-39317/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-39317/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-39317
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-39317
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-39317

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-39317/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.