How severe is CVE-2018-25091?

CVE-2018-25091 has a CVSS score of 6.1/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2018-25091?

CVE-2018-25091 affects the following packages: urllib3 (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2018-25091?

Update urllib3 to 1.24.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-25091 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2018-25091 in my PyPI dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for urllib3. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate CVE-2018-25091 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

How does O3 Security protect against CVE-2018-25091?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2018-25091 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2018-25091 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2018-25091 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2018-25091?

CVE-2018-25091 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.5%, placing it in the 39th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

When was CVE-2018-25091 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2018-25091 was published on October 15, 2023 and was last updated on April 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CVE-2018-25091: Authorization Header forwarded on redirect (Med…

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.5%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk39th percentile+0.29%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐍urllib3

Real-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

urllib3 before 1.24.2 does not remove the authorization HTTP header when following a cross-origin redirect (i.e., a redirect that differs in host, port, or scheme). This can allow for credentials in the authorization header to be exposed to unintended hosts or transmitted in cleartext. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2018-20060 (which was case-sensitive).

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`urllib3`	all versions	1.24.2

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for urllib3. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update urllib3 to 1.24.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-25091 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2018-25091 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to CVE-2018-25091. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

urllib3 before 1.24.2 does not remove the authorization HTTP header when following a cross-origin redirect (i.e., a redirect that differs in host, port, or scheme). This can allow for credentials in the authorization header to be exposed to unintended hosts or transmitted in cleartext. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2018-20060 (which was case-sensitive).

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2018-25091 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2018-25091 across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works

CVE-2018-25091