How severe is CVE-2020-15225?

CVE-2020-15225 has a CVSS score of 6.5/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2020-15225?

CVE-2020-15225 affects the following packages: django-filter (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2020-15225?

Update django-filter to 2.4.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-15225 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2020-15225 in my PyPI dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for django-filter, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2020-15225 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

Is CVE-2020-15225 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2020-15225 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-2020-15225?

CVE-2020-15225 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.8%, placing it in the 78th 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.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2020-15225?

CVE-2020-15225 is classified as CWE-681 (CWE-681). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2020-15225 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-15225 was published on April 29, 2021 and was last updated on July 8, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐍

🐍 PyPI

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2020-15225 — django-filter

MEDIUMFix: carltongibson/django-filter@340cf7a

CVE-2020-15225 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-681 vulnerability in django-filter. A fix is available for django-filter — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Potential DoS with NumberFilter conversion to integer values.

Also known asGHSA-x7gm-rfgv-w973PYSEC-2021-64

Published

Apr 29, 2021

Updated

Jul 8, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Oct 7, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.8%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs78th percentile — riskier than 78% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2020-15225 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,386 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

🐍django-filter

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

Impact

Automatically generated NumberFilter instances, whose value was later converted to an integer, were subject to potential DoS from maliciously input using exponential format with sufficiently large exponents.

Patches

Version 2.4.0+ applies a MaxValueValidator with a a default limit_value of 1e50 to the form field used by NumberFilter instances.

In addition, NumberFilter implements the new get_max_validator() which should return a configured validator instance to customise the limit, or else None to disable the additional validation.

Workarounds

Users may manually apply an equivalent validator if they are not able to upgrade.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Open an issue in the django-filter repo

Thanks to Marcin Waraksa for the report.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`django-filter`	all versions	2.4.0`pip install --upgrade 'django-filter==2.4.0'`

Affected Products

2 products · 3 configurations

Application

django-filterdjango-filter_project

< 2.4.0

range

fedorafedoraproject

2 versions

3435

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for django-filter, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update django-filter to 2.4.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-15225 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact Automatically generated `NumberFilter` instances, whose value was later converted to an integer, were subject to potential DoS from maliciously input using exponential format with sufficiently large exponents. ### Patches Version 2.4.0+ applies a `MaxValueValidator` with a a default `limit_value` of 1e50 to the form field used by `NumberFilter` instances. In addition, `NumberFilter` implements the new `get_max_validator()` which should return a configured validator instance to customise the limit, or else `None` to disable the additional validation. ### Workarounds Users ma