CVE-2026-21892 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) SQL Injection vulnerability in parsl. A fix is available for parsl — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Parsl Monitoring Visualization Vulnerable to SQL Injection
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.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-21892.
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-2026-21892 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
parslReal-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
Affected Product: Parsl (Python Parallel Scripting Library)
Component: parsl.monitoring.visualization
Vulnerability Type: SQL Injection (CWE-89)
Severity: High (CVSS Rating Recommended: 7.5 - 8.6)
URL: https://github.com/Parsl/parsl/blob/master/parsl/monitoring/visualization/views.py
Summary
A SQL Injection vulnerability exists in the parsl-visualize component of the Parsl library. The application constructs SQL queries using unsafe string formatting (Python % operator) with user-supplied input (workflow_id) directly from URL routes. This allows an unauthenticated attacker with access to the visualization dashboard to inject arbitrary SQL commands, potentially leading to data exfiltration or denial of service against the monitoring database.
Root Cause Analysis
The vulnerability is located in parsl/monitoring/visualization/views.py. Multiple route handlers take the workflow_id parameter from the URL and inject it directly into a raw SQL query string without sanitization or parameterization.
Vulnerable Code Snippet 1
query = """SELECT task.task_id, task.task_func_name, task.task_depends, status.task_status_name
FROM task LEFT JOIN status
ON task.task_id = status.task_id
AND task.run_id = status.run_id
AND status.timestamp = (SELECT MAX(status.timestamp)
FROM status
WHERE status.task_id = task.task_id and status.run_id = task.run_id
)
WHERE task.run_id='%s'""" % (workflow_id)
Vulnerable Code Snippet 2
df_task_tries = pd.read_sql_query("""SELECT ...
WHERE task.task_id = try.task_id AND task.run_id='%s' and try.run_id='%s'"""
% (workflow_id, workflow_id), db.engine) # <--- Vulnerable
Impact
Data Exfiltration: An attacker can use UNION based injection to dump the entire contents of the monitoring database, including potentially sensitive environment variables, task parameters, or host information logged by the monitoring system.
Access Control Bypass: By injecting boolean logic (e.g., ' OR '1'='1), an attacker could bypass specific workflow filters to view data they are not authorized to see.
Denial of Service: Time-based attacks or resource-intensive queries (e.g., randomblob) could crash the visualization server or the database.
Proof of Concept (PoC)
Prerequisites:
Parsl installed with monitoring enabled (pip install 'parsl[monitoring,visualization]').
A running parsl-visualize server serving a database with at least one recorded workflow.
Reproduction Steps:
Identify a valid workflow ID (or use a known ID like default-run or a UUID).
Navigate to the dag_group_by_states endpoint using the following manipulated URLs to confirm SQL logic control (Boolean-based Blind SQLi).
Test 1: Boolean FALSE (Graph Disappears) Injecting a false condition (1=0) causes the query to return zero rows, resulting in an empty visualization.
http://<server>:8080/workflow/<VALID_ID>'%20AND%20'1'='0/dag_group_by_states
Test 2: Boolean TRUE (Graph Reappears) Injecting a true condition (1=1) restores the query logic, causing the graph to render correctly.
http://<server>:8080/workflow/<VALID_ID>'%20AND%20'1'='1/dag_group_by_states
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | parsl | all versions | 2026.01.05pip install --upgrade 'parsl==2026.01.05' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for parsl, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update parsl to 2026.01.05 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-21892 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-2026-21892 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-21892. 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-21892 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-21892 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.