CVE-2023-28837Network attack vector

Service crash via whole-file hash calculation

Published Apr 3, 2023 · Updated Feb 11, 2025

Uncontrolled resource consumption in Wagtail before 4.1.4 and 4.2 through 4.2.1 allows remote authenticated users to crash the service. Image and document metadata handling reads an entire uploaded file into memory before passing its contents to SHA-1 hashing, exhausting process memory on sufficiently large files. An administrator with image or document upload permission must submit the file; ordinary site visitors cannot reach the path.

CVSS severity4.9
Medium
EPSS probability1.07%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Uncontrolled resource consumption in Wagtail before 4.1.4 and 4.2 through 4.2.1 allows remote authenticated users to crash the service. Image and document metadata handling reads an entire uploaded file into memory before passing its contents to SHA-1 hashing, exhausting process memory on sufficiently large files. An administrator with image or document upload permission must submit the file; ordinary site visitors cannot reach the path.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-28837
Published
Apr 3, 2023
Updated
Feb 11, 2025
Vendor
Wagtail
Product
Wagtail
Classifications
CWE-400, T1499
Attack vector
network
Privileges
admin

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Apr 3, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Feb 11, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=< 4.1.4
  2. Affected versionversion=>= 4.2, < 4.2.2

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesadmin

What is affected?

Wagtail · Wagtailversion=< 4.1.4; version=>= 4.2, < 4.2.2

Published CVSS scores

4.9GitHub, Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesadmin
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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