CVE-2020-19850 — directus
MEDIUMCVE-2020-19850 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in directus. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for directus — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Directus API vulnerable to denial of service
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2020-19850.
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
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
directusnpmDescription
An issue found in Directus API v.2.2.0 allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service via a great amount of HTTP requests.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | directus | ≥ 2.2.0&&< 2.2.1 | 2.2.1npm install directus@2.2.1 |
Affected Products
directusmonospaceResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for directus, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update directus to 2.2.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-19850 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
Is CVE-2020-19850 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.