CVE-2018-7537
If django.utils.text.Truncator's chars() and words() methods were passed the html=True argument, they were extremely slow to evaluate certain inputs due to a catastrophic backtracking vulnerability in a regular expression.
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (4.37%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
An issue was discovered in Django 2.0 before 2.0.3, 1.11 before 1.11.11, and 1.8 before 1.8.19. If django.utils.text.Truncator's chars() and words() methods were passed the html=True argument, they were extremely slow to evaluate certain inputs due to a catastrophic backtracking vulnerability in a regular expression. The chars() and words() methods are used to implement the truncatechars_html and truncatewords_html template filters, which were thus vulnerable.
- CVSS 3.0
- 5.3 MEDIUMCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- EPSS
- 4.37% probability · 91th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-185
- Affected
- canonical/ubuntu linux · djangoproject/django · debian/debian linux
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
EPSS 4.4% since 27 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/103357Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2927Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0265Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/03/msg00006.htmlMailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3591-1/Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4161Third Party Advisory
- https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2018/mar/06/security-releases/Release Notes, Vendor Advisory
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/103357Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2927Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0265Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/03/msg00006.htmlMailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3591-1/Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4161Third Party Advisory
- https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2018/mar/06/security-releases/Release Notes, Vendor Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.