GHSA-v4w5-p2hg-8fh6 is a low-severity (CVSS 3.7) CWE-295 vulnerability in urllib3. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-v4w5-p2hg-8fh6 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Urllib3 Incorrect Certificate Validation
Real-World Exposure
urllib3Real-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
Versions 1.17 and 1.18 of the Python urllib3 library suffer from a vulnerability that can cause them, in certain configurations, to not correctly validate TLS certificates. This places users of the library with those configurations at risk of man-in-the-middle and information leakage attacks. This vulnerability affects users using versions 1.17 and 1.18 of the urllib3 library, who are using the optional PyOpenSSL support for TLS instead of the regular standard library TLS backend, and who are using OpenSSL 1.1.0 via PyOpenSSL. This is an extremely uncommon configuration, so the security impact of this vulnerability is low.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | urllib3 | ≥ 1.17&&< 1.18.1 | 1.18.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for urllib3. 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 urllib3 to 1.18.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-v4w5-p2hg-8fh6 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-v4w5-p2hg-8fh6 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-v4w5-p2hg-8fh6. 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-v4w5-p2hg-8fh6 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-v4w5-p2hg-8fh6 across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.