GHSA-339m-4qw5-j2g3 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.8) Code Injection vulnerability in tendenci. A fix is available for tendenci — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Tendenci Affected by Authenticated Remote Code Execution via Pickle Deserialization
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- 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 GHSA-339m-4qw5-j2g3.
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
GHSA-339m-4qw5-j2g3 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 379,145 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
tendenciReal-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
A critical deserialization vulnerability exists in Tendenci Helpdesk module (NOTE, by default, Helpdesk is NOT enabled), affecting the version 15.3.11 and earlier. This vulnerability allows remote code execution (RCE) by an authenticated user with staff security level due to using Python's pickle module on the helpdesk /reports/. The damage is contained to the user that your Tendenci application runs.
Key Finding: The original CVE-2020-14942 was incompletely patched. While ticket_list() was fixed to use safe JSON deserialization, the run_report() function still uses unsafe pickle.loads().
Permission Scoping: The impact is limited to the permissions of the user running the application, typically www-data, which generally lacks write (except for upload directories) and execute permissions.
Vulnerability Details
Affected Version
- Version: Tendenci 15.3.11 and earlier (all versions since incomplete CVE-2020-14942 patch)
- Component:
tendenci/apps/helpdesk/views/staff.py
Related CVE
- CVE-2020-14942: Original pickle deserialization vulnerability (partially patched)
- GitHub Advisory: GHSA-jqmc-fxxp-r589
- Original Issue: https://github.com/tendenci/tendenci/issues/867
Tendenci User Role Hierarchy
| Level | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | is_superuser | Highest privilege - full Django admin |
| 1 | is_staff | user with Staff security level - can access helpdesk module |
| 2 | Authenticated User | Basic user access |
| 3 | Anonymous User | Public read-only access |
is_staff is a commonly assigned role (by a superuser) for helpdesk operators who manage support tickets - not system administrators.
Code Comparison (Patched vs Vulnerable)
| Function | Line | Deserialization | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
ticket_list() | 763 | simplejson.loads() | ✅ SAFE |
run_report() | 1062 | pickle.loads() | ❌ VULNERABLE |
Why This Qualifies for CVE Assignment
This vulnerability represents an incomplete patch bypass for CVE-2020-14942 with a clear exploitation path. The flaw allows a malicious user with Staff security level to achieve Remote Code Execution via Python's pickle.loads. Though the damage is contained to the user that your Tendenci application runs.
Remediation
Update Tendenci to the latest version (v15.3.12 as of now) immediately if you have Helpdesk enabled. Note that Helpdesk is not enabled by default. All of our hosted sites have been patched, although none of our client sites have the Helpdesk enabled.
References
- Tendenci GitHub: https://github.com/tendenci/tendenci
- CVE-2020-14942: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-14942
- GitHub Advisory: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-jqmc-fxxp-r589
- Original Issue: https://github.com/tendenci/tendenci/issues/867
- CWE-502: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/502.html
- Python Pickle Security: https://docs.python.org/3/library/pickle.html#restricting-globals
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | tendenci | all versions | 15.3.12pip install --upgrade 'tendenci==15.3.12' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for tendenci, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update tendenci to 15.3.12 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-339m-4qw5-j2g3 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-339m-4qw5-j2g3 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-339m-4qw5-j2g3. 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-339m-4qw5-j2g3 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-339m-4qw5-j2g3 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.