CVE-2023-42457 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in plone-rest. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2023-42457 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
plone.rest vulnerable to Denial of Service when ++api++ is used many times
Real-World Exposure
plone-rest🐍plone-restReal-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
plone.rest allows users to use HTTP verbs such as GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc. in Plone. Starting in the 2.x branch and prior to versions 2.0.1 and 3.0.1, when the ++api++ traverser is accidentally used multiple times in a url, handling it takes increasingly longer, making the server less responsive. Patches are available in plone.rest 2.0.1 and 3.0.1. Series 1.x is not affected. As a workaround, one may redirect /++api++/++api++ to /++api++ in one's frontend web server (nginx, Apache).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | plone-rest | ≥ 2.0.0a1&&< 2.0.1 | 2.0.1 |
| 🐍PyPI | plone-rest | ≥ 3.0.0&&< 3.0.1 | 3.0.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for plone-rest. 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 plone-rest to 2.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-42457 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-2023-42457 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-2023-42457. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-42457 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2023-42457 across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.