CVE-2014-0481 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-399 vulnerability in django. A fix is available for django — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Django denial of service via file upload naming
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🐍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 default configuration for the file upload handling system in Django before 1.4.14, 1.5.x before 1.5.9, 1.6.x before 1.6.6, and 1.7 before release candidate 3 uses a sequential file name generation process when a file with a conflicting name is uploaded, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) by unloading a multiple files with the same name.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | django | all versions | 1.4.14pip install --upgrade 'django==1.4.14' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 1.5&&< 1.5.9 | 1.5.9pip install --upgrade 'django==1.5.9' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 1.6&&< 1.6.6 | 1.6.6pip install --upgrade 'django==1.6.6' |
Affected Products
debian linuxdebiandjangodjangoprojectopensuseopensuseopensuseopensuse_projectDetection & 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 1.4.14 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2014-0481 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2014-0481 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.