GHSA-w2v8-php4-p8hc is a low-severity (CVSS 2.7) CWE-280 vulnerability in wagtail. A fix is available for wagtail — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Wagtail has permission check bypass when editing a model with per-field restrictions through `wagtail.contrib.settings` or `ModelViewSet`
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-w2v8-php4-p8hc.
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-w2v8-php4-p8hc 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
wagtailReal-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 a model has been made available for editing through the wagtail.contrib.settings module or ModelViewSet, and the permission argument on FieldPanel has been used to further restrict access to one or more fields of the model, a user with edit permission over the model but not the specific field can craft an HTTP POST request that bypasses the permission check on the individual field, allowing them to update its value.
The vulnerability is not exploitable by an ordinary site visitor without access to the Wagtail admin, or by a user who has not been granted edit access to the model in question. The editing interfaces for pages and snippets are also unaffected.
Patches
Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 6.0.3 and 6.1. Wagtail releases prior to 6.0 are unaffected.
Workarounds
Site owners who are unable to upgrade to a patched version can avoid the vulnerability in ModelViewSet by registering the model as a snippet instead. No workaround is available for wagtail.contrib.settings.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Ben Morse and Joshua Munn for reporting this issue.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Visit Wagtail's support channels
- Email us at [email protected] (view our security policy for more information).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | wagtail | ≥ 6.0.0&&< 6.0.3 | 6.0.3pip install --upgrade 'wagtail==6.0.3' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for wagtail, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update wagtail to 6.0.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-w2v8-php4-p8hc 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-w2v8-php4-p8hc can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-w2v8-php4-p8hc. 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-w2v8-php4-p8hc in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-w2v8-php4-p8hc across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.