CVE-2023-43665 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) CWE-1284 vulnerability in django. A fix is available for django — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Django Denial-of-service in django.utils.text.Truncator
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-43665 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
django🐍django🐍djangoReal-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
In Django 3.2 before 3.2.22, 4.1 before 4.1.12, and 4.2 before 4.2.6, the django.utils.text.Truncator chars() and words() methods (when used with html=True) are subject to a potential DoS (denial of service) attack via certain inputs with very long, potentially malformed HTML text. The chars() and words() methods are used to implement the truncatechars_html and truncatewords_html template filters, which are thus also vulnerable. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2019-14232.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 3.2a1&&< 3.2.22 | 3.2.22pip install --upgrade 'django==3.2.22' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 4.1a1&&< 4.1.12 | 4.1.12pip install --upgrade 'django==4.1.12' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 4.2a1&&< 4.2.6 | 4.2.6pip install --upgrade 'django==4.2.6' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for django, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update django to 3.2.22 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-43665 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2023-43665 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-43665. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 for RHEL 8 | python3x-django-0:3.2.22-1.el8ap | RHSA-2023:5758 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 for RHEL 8 | automation-controller-0:4.4.7-1.el8ap | RHSA-2023:6158 |
| Red Hat Satellite 6.14 for RHEL 8 | python-django-0:3.2.22-1.el8pc | RHSA-2024:1536 |
| Red Hat Satellite 6.15 for RHEL 8 | python-django-0:4.2.9-1.el8pc | RHSA-2024:2010 |
| RHUI 4 for RHEL 8 | python-django-0:4.2.11-1.el8ui | RHSA-2024:1878 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-43665 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-43665 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.