What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities
CVE-2021-23336: Web Cache Poisoning
- Severity: medium (CVSS 5.9 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
- EPSS: 40.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: yes
- Published: 2021-02-15 · updated 2026-10-14
- Weakness: CWE-444
Description
The package python/cpython from 0 and before 3.6.13, from 3.7.0 and before 3.7.10, from 3.8.0 and before 3.8.8, from 3.9.0 and before 3.9.2 are vulnerable to Web Cache Poisoning via urllib.parse.parse_qsl and urllib.parse.parse_qs by using a vector called parameter cloaking. When the attacker can separate query parameters using a semicolon (;), they can cause a difference in the interpretation of the request between the proxy (running with default configuration) and the server. This can result in malicious requests being cached as completely safe ones, as the proxy would usually not see the semicolon as a separator, and therefore would not include it in a cache key of an unkeyed parameter.
Affected products
- Debian Linux: 9.0
- Django: from 2.2 before 2.2.19; from 3.0 before 3.0.13; from 3.1 before 3.1.7 — fixed in 2.2.19, 3.0.13, 3.1.7
- Fedoraproject Fedora: 32, 33, 34
- NetApp Cloud Backup: all versions
- NetApp Inventory Collect Tool: all versions
- NetApp ONTAP Select Deploy administration utility: all versions
- NetApp SnapCenter: all versions
- Oracle Communications Offline Mediation Controller: 12.0.0.3.0
- Oracle Corporation Communications Pricing Design Center: 12.0.0.3.0
- Oracle Corporation Enterprise Manager Ops Center: 12.4.0.0
- Oracle Zfs Storage Appliance: 8.8
- Python: before 3.6.13; from 3.7.0 before 3.7.10; from 3.8.0 before 3.8.8; from 3.9.0 before 3.9.2 — fixed in 3.6.13, 3.7.10, 3.8.8, 3.9.2
How to fix
Upgrade to a fixed version: Django 2.2.19, 3.0.13, 3.1.7; Python 3.6.13, 3.7.10, 3.8.8, 3.9.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.
References
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/02/19/4
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/05/01/2
- https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/24297
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/ra8ce70088ba291f358e077cafdb14d174b7a1ce9a9d86d1b332d6367%40%3Cusers.airflow.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rc005f4de9d9b0ba943ceb8ff5a21a5c6ff8a9df52632476698d99432%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf9fa47ab66495c78bb4120b0754dd9531ca2ff0430f6685ac9b07772%40%3Cdev.mina.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/02/msg00030.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/04/msg00005.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/04/msg00015.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/09/msg00022.html
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/3EPYWWFDV22CJ5AOH5VCE72DOASZZ255/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/3YKKDLXL3UEZ3J426C2XTBS63AHE46SM/
Get alerted when CVE-2021-23336 or the next vulnerability affects your stack