CVE-2024-53907 — django
HIGHCVE-2024-53907 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-770 vulnerability in django. A fix is available for django — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Django denial-of-service in django.utils.html.strip_tags()
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-53907.
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-2024-53907 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 377,333 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🐍django🐍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
An issue was discovered in Django 5.1 before 5.1.4, 5.0 before 5.0.10, and 4.2 before 4.2.17. The strip_tags() method and striptags template filter are subject to a potential denial-of-service attack via certain inputs containing large sequences of nested incomplete HTML entities.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 5.1.0&&< 5.1.4 | 5.1.4pip install --upgrade 'django==5.1.4' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 4.2.0&&< 4.2.17 | 4.2.17pip install --upgrade 'django==4.2.17' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 5.0.0&&< 5.0.10 | 5.0.10pip install --upgrade 'django==5.0.10' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 5.1&&< 5.1.4 | 5.1.4pip install --upgrade 'django==5.1.4' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 5.0&&< 5.0.10 | 5.0.10pip install --upgrade 'django==5.0.10' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 4.2&&< 4.2.17 | 4.2.17pip install --upgrade 'django==4.2.17' |
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 5.1.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-53907 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-2024-53907 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-53907. 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.
This vulnerability is rated as a Moderate severity because it exposes the strip_tags() method and striptags template filter to a potential denial-of-service attack, malicious input containing large sequences of nested incomplete HTML entities could cause excessive processing, but it does not affect data…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery 1 for RHEL 9 | discovery/discovery-server-rhel9:1.12.0-1 | RHSA-2025:1249 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 for RHEL 8 | ansible-automation-platform-24/aap-cloud-billing-rhel8:0.3.0-51 | RHSA-2024:11144 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 | ansible-automation-platform-25/aap-cloud-billing-rhel8:0.3.0-54 | RHSA-2024:11146 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 | automation-controller-0:4.6.6-1.el8ap | RHSA-2025:0340 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 | python3.11-django-0:4.2.18-1.el8ap | RHSA-2025:0777 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-53907 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-53907 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.