Scrapy HTTP authentication credentials potentially leaked to target websitesGHSA-jwqp-28gf-p498
MEDIUMFix: scrapy/scrapy@b01d69aGHSA-jwqp-28gf-p498 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.7) Information Exposure vulnerability in scrapy. A fix is available for scrapy — see the affected versions and patch details below.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-jwqp-28gf-p498 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
scrapy🐍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
If you use HttpAuthMiddleware (i.e. the http_user and http_pass spider attributes) for HTTP authentication, all requests will expose your credentials to the request target.
This includes requests generated by Scrapy components, such as robots.txt requests sent by Scrapy when the ROBOTSTXT_OBEY setting is set to True, or as requests reached through redirects.
Patches
Upgrade to Scrapy 2.5.1 and use the new http_auth_domain spider attribute to control which domains are allowed to receive the configured HTTP authentication credentials.
If you are using Scrapy 1.8 or a lower version, and upgrading to Scrapy 2.5.1 is not an option, you may upgrade to Scrapy 1.8.1 instead.
Workarounds
If you cannot upgrade, set your HTTP authentication credentials on a per-request basis, using for example the w3lib.http.basic_auth_header function to convert your credentials into a value that you can assign to the Authorization header of your request, instead of defining your credentials globally using HttpAuthMiddleware.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | scrapy | all versions | 1.8.1pip install --upgrade 'scrapy==1.8.1' |
| 🐍PyPI | scrapy | ≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.5.1 | 2.5.1pip install --upgrade 'scrapy==2.5.1' |
Affected Products
debian linuxdebianscrapyscrapyDetection & 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 1.8.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-jwqp-28gf-p498 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Assume what was exposed is already known: rotate any credential, token or key that the affected component could return, restrict the endpoint to callers that genuinely need it, and strip sensitive fields from responses and error output at the boundary rather than relying on the client not to read them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-jwqp-28gf-p498 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.