How severe is GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7?

GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 has a CVSS score of 5.3/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7?

GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 affects the following packages: werkzeug (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7?

Update werkzeug to 3.1.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 in my PyPI dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for werkzeug. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7?

GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.4%, placing it in the 34th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7?

GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 is classified as CWE-67 (CWE-67). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 was published on January 8, 2026 and was last updated on February 4, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐍 PyPI

GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7

MEDIUM

Werkzeug safe_join() allows Windows special device names with compound extensions

Also known asCVE-2026-21860

Published

Jan 8, 2026

Updated

Feb 4, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.4%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk34th percentile+0.39%

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.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐍werkzeug

Real-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

Werkzeug's safe_join function allows path segments with Windows device names that have file extensions or trailing spaces. On Windows, there are special device names such as CON, AUX, etc that are implicitly present and readable in every directory. Windows still accepts them with any file extension, such as CON.txt, or trailing spaces such as CON .

This was previously reported as https://github.com/pallets/werkzeug/security/advisories/GHSA-hgf8-39gv-g3f2, but the fix failed to account for compound extensions such as CON.txt.html or trailing spaces. It also missed some additional special names.

send_from_directory uses safe_join to safely serve files at user-specified paths under a directory. If the application is running on Windows, and the requested path ends with a special device name, the file will be opened successfully, but reading will hang indefinitely.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`werkzeug`	all versions	3.1.5

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for werkzeug. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update werkzeug to 3.1.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Werkzeug's `safe_join` function allows path segments with Windows device names that have file extensions or trailing spaces. On Windows, there are special device names such as `CON`, `AUX`, etc that are implicitly present and readable in every directory. Windows still accepts them with any file extension, such as `CON.txt`, or trailing spaces such as `CON `. This was previously reported as https://github.com/pallets/werkzeug/security/advisories/GHSA-hgf8-39gv-g3f2, but the fix failed to account for compound extensions such as `CON.txt.html` or trailing spaces. It also missed some additional s

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works