GHSA-23j4-mw76-5v7h is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) vulnerability in scrapy. A fix is available for scrapy — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Scrapy allows redirect following in protocols other than HTTP
Real-World Exposure
scrapyReal-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
Scrapy was following redirects regardless of the URL protocol, so redirects were working for data://, file://, ftp://, s3://, and any other scheme defined in the DOWNLOAD_HANDLERS setting.
However, HTTP redirects should only work between URLs that use the http:// or https:// schemes.
A malicious actor, given write access to the start requests (e.g. ability to define start_urls) of a spider and read access to the spider output, could exploit this vulnerability to:
- Redirect to any local file using the
file://scheme to read its contents. - Redirect to an
ftp://URL of a malicious FTP server to obtain the FTP username and password configured in the spider or project. - Redirect to any
s3://URL to read its content using the S3 credentials configured in the spider or project.
For file:// and s3://, how the spider implements its parsing of input data into an output item determines what data would be vulnerable. A spider that always outputs the entire contents of a response would be completely vulnerable, while a spider that extracted only fragments from the response could significantly limit vulnerable data.
Patches
Upgrade to Scrapy 2.11.2.
Workarounds
Replace the built-in retry middlewares (RedirectMiddleware and MetaRefreshMiddleware) with custom ones that implement the fix from Scrapy 2.11.2, and verify that they work as intended.
References
This security issue was reported by @mvsantos at https://github.com/scrapy/scrapy/issues/457.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | scrapy | all versions | 2.11.2pip install --upgrade 'scrapy==2.11.2' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for scrapy, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update scrapy to 2.11.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-23j4-mw76-5v7h 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 GHSA-23j4-mw76-5v7h can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-23j4-mw76-5v7h. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-23j4-mw76-5v7h in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-23j4-mw76-5v7h across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.