CVE-2014-9720 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-203 vulnerability in tornado. A fix is available for tornado — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Tornado XSRF cookie allows side-channel attack against TLS (BREACH attack)
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
tornadoReal-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
Tornado before 3.2.2 sends arbitrary responses that contain a fixed CSRF token and may be sent with HTTP compression, which makes it easier for remote attackers to conduct a BREACH attack and determine this token via a series of crafted requests.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | tornado | all versions | 3.2.2pip install --upgrade 'tornado==3.2.2' |
Affected Products
tornadotornadowebDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for tornado, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update tornado to 3.2.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2014-9720 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2014-9720 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.