GHSA-9cwg-mhxf-hh59 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in django. A fix is available for django — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Django cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability via is_safe_url function
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-9cwg-mhxf-hh59 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 376,715 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🐍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
The is_safe_url function in utils/http.py in Django 1.4.x before 1.4.6, 1.5.x before 1.5.2, and 1.6 before beta 2 treats a URL's scheme as safe even if it is not HTTP or HTTPS, which might introduce cross-site scripting (XSS) or other vulnerabilities into Django applications that use this function, as demonstrated by "the login view in django.contrib.auth.views" and the javascript: scheme.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 1.4&&< 1.4.6 | 1.4.6pip install --upgrade 'django==1.4.6' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 1.5&&< 1.5.2 | 1.5.2pip install --upgrade 'django==1.5.2' |
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 1.4.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-9cwg-mhxf-hh59 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-9cwg-mhxf-hh59 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-9cwg-mhxf-hh59. 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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStack 3 for RHEL 6 | Django14-0:1.4.8-1.el6ost | RHSA-2013:1521 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-9cwg-mhxf-hh59 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-9cwg-mhxf-hh59 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.