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RestrictedpythonApplication · Zope

CVE-2023-41039

HIGH · 7.7 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-08-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.4 / 6.2 or later.
See remediation →
83/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable Zero-click Patch available

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
RestrictedPython is a restricted execution environment for Python to run untrusted code. Python's "format" functionality allows someone controlling the format string to "read" all objects accessible through recursive attribute lookup and subscription from objects he can access. This can lead to critical information disclosure. With `RestrictedPython`, the format functionality is available via the `format` and `format_map` methods of `str` (and `unicode`) (accessed either via the class or its instances) and via `string.Formatter`. All known versions of `RestrictedPython` are vulnerable. This issue has been addressed in commit `4134aedcff1` which has been included in the 5.4 and 6.2 releases. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-74

Untrusted input crosses into a downstream interpreter — SQL, a shell, an HTML page, an LDAP query — without being kept separate from the commands around it, so the attacker's data is read as instructions. This is the parent class behind SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and command injection alike. The durable fix is the same everywhere: keep data and code apart at every boundary, using parameterisation or context-aware encoding rather than building interpreted strings by concatenation.

General guidance for the injection class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
RestrictedpythonApplication
Affected:< 5.4>= 6.0, < 6.2

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

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

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.4 / 6.2 or later
Fixed in 5.46.2
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to RestrictedPython version 5.4 (if on <5.x) or 6.2 (if on >=6.0,<6.2)

  1. 1. Identify the currently installed version of RestrictedPython by checking your requirements.txt, setup.py, or running 'pip show restrictedpython'
  2. 2. If you are on a version < 5.4 (e.g., 5.3, 5.2, etc.), upgrade to version 5.4 by running: pip install RestrictedPython==5.4
  3. 3. If you are on a version >= 6.0 and < 6.2 (e.g., 6.0, 6.1), upgrade to version 6.2 by running: pip install RestrictedPython==6.2
  4. 4. Verify the upgrade was successful by running: pip show restrictedpython
  5. 5. Run your test suite to ensure the upgrade does not break existing functionality
  6. 6. Redeploy your application with the updated dependency
Caveat No specific breaking changes documented in the advisory; however, test thoroughly as with any version upgrade

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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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-2023-41039 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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