GHSA-x38m-486c-2wr9 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-399 vulnerability in django. A fix is available for django — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Denial-of-service possibility in logout() view by filling session store
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-x38m-486c-2wr9 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 (1) contrib.sessions.backends.base.SessionBase.flush and (2) cache_db.SessionStore.flush functions in Django 1.7.x before 1.7.10, 1.4.x before 1.4.22, and possibly other versions create empty sessions in certain circumstances, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (session store consumption) via unspecified vectors.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 1.7&&< 1.7.10 | 1.7.10pip install --upgrade 'django==1.7.10' |
| 🐍PyPI | django | ≥ 1.4&&< 1.4.22 | 1.4.22pip install --upgrade 'django==1.4.22' |
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 1.7.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-x38m-486c-2wr9 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-x38m-486c-2wr9 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-x38m-486c-2wr9. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5.0 (Icehouse) for RHEL 6 | python-django-0:1.6.11-3.el6ost | RHSA-2015:1766 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5.0 (Icehouse) for RHEL 7 | python-django-0:1.6.11-3.el7ost | RHSA-2015:1767 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 6.0 (Juno) for RHEL 7 | python-django-0:1.6.11-3.el7ost | RHSA-2015:1894 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-x38m-486c-2wr9 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-x38m-486c-2wr9 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.