CVE-2013-6044 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in django. A fix is available for django — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Django cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability via is_safe_url function
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
django🐍djangoReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The is_safe_url function in utils/http.py in Django 1.4.x before 1.4.6, 1.5.x before 1.5.2, and 1.6 before beta 2 treats a URL's scheme as safe even if it is not HTTP or HTTPS, which might introduce cross-site scripting (XSS) or other vulnerabilities into Django applications that use this function, as demonstrated by "the login view in django.contrib.auth.views" and the javascript: scheme.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 1.4&&< 1.4.6 | 1.4.6pip install --upgrade 'django==1.4.6' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 1.5&&< 1.5.2 | 1.5.2pip install --upgrade 'django==1.5.2' |
Affected Products
djangodjangoprojectDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for django, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update django to 1.4.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2013-6044 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStack 3 for RHEL 6 | Django14-0:1.4.8-1.el6ost | RHSA-2013:1521 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2013-6044 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.