Play FrameworkApplication · Lightbend

CVE-2020-26882

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-11-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.8.2 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In Play Framework 2.6.0 through 2.8.2, data amplification can occur when an application accepts multipart/form-data JSON input.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

In Play Framework 2.6.0 through 2.8.2, applications that accept multipart/form-data requests containing JSON data may experience data amplification. This vulnerability allows an attacker to submit specially crafted multipart/form-data requests with JSON content that causes excessive data expansion during parsing or processing.

MitigationUpgrade Play Framework to version 2.8.3 or later. If immediate upgrading is not feasible, implement strict input validation and size limits on multipart/form-data requests containing JSON content.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Play FrameworkApplication
Affected:<= 2.6.25>= 2.7.0, <= 2.7.5>= 2.8.0, <= 2.8.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Play Framework version
    Check your project dependencies (build.sbt, build.gradle, or pom.xml) for the Play Framework library version, or run 'sbt playVersion' if available
    Affected if The version falls within <= 2.6.25, >= 2.7.0 through <= 2.7.5, or >= 2.8.0 through <= 2.8.2
  2. Locate multipart/form-data endpoints
    Search your application routes file (conf/routes) for 'multipart/form-data' in Content-Type declarations or review controller actions that handle file uploads
    Affected if The application accepts multipart/form-data requests
  3. Verify JSON handling in multipart requests
    Inspect controller code for any routes that process both multipart/form-data and parse JSON body content (e.g., anyOf, JSON parsing of multipart parts)
    Affected if The application parses or processes JSON data within multipart/form-data requests
  4. Check for data expansion behavior
    Submit a test multipart/form-data request with nested or repeated JSON structures and monitor the memory or data size after parsing compared to the original request size
    Affected if Parsed data size significantly exceeds the original request size, indicating amplification

You are affected if your Play Framework version is between 2.6.0 and 2.8.2 (inclusive) AND your application accepts multipart/form-data requests containing JSON content that gets processed.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.8.2
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Play Framework to version 2.8.3 or later. If immediate upgrading is not feasible, implement strict input validation and size limits on multipart/form-data requests containing JSON content.

Fix this in Play Framework Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
40.0 hours of engineering $7,000
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-26882 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data