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MEDIUM severity

CVE-2021-32681 — wagtail

MEDIUM

CVE-2021-32681 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in wagtail. 3 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for wagtail — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Cross-site Scripting in wagtail

Also known asGHSA-xfrw-hxr5-ghqfPYSEC-2021-103
Published
Updated
Affected
3 pkgs
Patched
3 / 3
Exploits
3 known
Exploitation data as of Oct 11, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
1.1%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs65th percentile — riskier than 65% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.54%1.07%1.61%0.3%1.1%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

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

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2021-32681 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

3 pkgs affected
🐍wagtail🐍wagtail🐍wagtail

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

When the {% include_block %} template tag is used to output the value of a plain-text StreamField block (CharBlock, TextBlock or a similar user-defined block derived from FieldBlock), and that block does not specify a template for rendering, the tag output is not properly escaped as HTML. This could allow users to insert arbitrary HTML or scripting. This vulnerability is only exploitable by users with the ability to author StreamField content (i.e. users with 'editor' access to the Wagtail admin).

Patches

Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 2.11.8 (for the LTS 2.11 branch), Wagtail 2.12.5, and Wagtail 2.13.2 (for the current 2.13 branch).

Site implementors who wish to retain the existing behaviour of allowing editors to insert HTML content in these blocks (and are willing to accept the risk of untrusted editors inserting arbitrary code) may disable the escaping by surrounding the relevant {% include_block %} tag in {% autoescape off %}...{% endautoescape %}.

Workarounds

Site implementors who are unable to upgrade to a current supported version should audit their use of {% include_block %} to ensure it is not used to output CharBlock / TextBlock values with no associated template. Note that this only applies where {% include_block %} is used directly on that block (uses of include_block on a block containing a CharBlock / TextBlock, such as a StructBlock, are unaffected). In these cases, the tag can be replaced with Django's {{ ... }} syntax - e.g. {% include_block my_title_block %} becomes {{ my_title_block }}.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Karen Tracey for reporting this issue.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Affected Packages

3 total 3 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐍PyPIwagtailall versions2.11.8pip install --upgrade 'wagtail==2.11.8'
🐍PyPIwagtail≥ 2.12&&< 2.12.52.12.5pip install --upgrade 'wagtail==2.12.5'
🐍PyPIwagtail≥ 2.13&&< 2.13.22.13.2pip install --upgrade 'wagtail==2.13.2'

Affected Products

1 product · 3 configurations
Application
wagtailtorchbox
≥ 2.13 && ≤ 2.13.1
range
Exploits & PoCs
3

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. A c…

github.comNVDJun 2021

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. A c…

github.comNVDJun 2021

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. A c…

github.comNVDJun 2021

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

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

  2. Fix

    Update wagtail to 2.11.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-32681 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact When the `{% include_block %}` template tag is used to output the value of a plain-text StreamField block (`CharBlock`, `TextBlock` or a similar user-defined block derived from `FieldBlock`), and that block does not specify a template for rendering, the tag output is not properly escaped as HTML. This could allow users to insert arbitrary HTML or scripting. This vulnerability is only exploitable by users with the ability to author StreamField content (i.e. users with 'editor' access to the Wagtail admin). ### Patches Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 2.11.8 (for the LT
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2021-32681: wagtail RCE — Fixed in 2.11.8