TornadoApplication · Tornadoweb

CVE-2026-31958

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-03-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.5.5 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
Tornado is a Python web framework and asynchronous networking library. In versions of Tornado prior to 6.5.5, the only limit on the number of parts in multipart/form-data is the max_body_size setting (default 100MB). Since parsing occurs synchronously on the main thread, this creates the possibility of denial-of-service due to the cost of parsing very large multipart bodies with many parts. This vulnerability is fixed in 6.5.5.

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 · high confidence

Tornado web framework before 6.5.5 lacks a limit on the number of parts in multipart/form-data requests, with only the max_body_size (default 100MB) as a constraint. Since parsing occurs synchronously on the main thread, attackers can send requests with many small parts that consume significant CPU time, creating a denial-of-service condition.

MitigationUpgrade to Tornado 6.5.5 or later to receive the patch that adds limits on multipart part count. Consider implementing request rate limiting or part count limits at the load balancer/proxy level as an additional defense-in-depth measure.

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
TornadoApplication
Affected:< 6.5.5

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 if Tornado is in use
    Search for 'tornado' in your requirements.txt, pip list output, or Python import statements across your codebase
    Affected if Tornado is not found in your environment (not applicable)
  2. Determine installed Tornado version
    Run 'python -c "import tornado; print(tornado.version)"' or check via 'pip show tornado'
    Affected if Version is lower than 6.5.5 (e.g., 6.5.4, 6.4.x, 6.3.x, etc.)
  3. Verify multipart/form-data handling is enabled
    Search your application code for RequestHandler classes that accept file uploads or use the @stream_body decorator, and check for 'multipart' in your request handling configuration
    Affected if Your application accepts multipart/form-data requests (this is the attack surface)
  4. Confirm default max_body_size is in use
    Check your application configuration files and startup code for the 'max_body_size' setting in tornado.web.Application or tornado.httpserver.HTTPServer configuration
    Affected if Using default 100MB limit without additional part count restrictions (vulnerability is present)

You are affected if you are running any Tornado version below 6.5.5 AND your application accepts multipart/form-data requests, since the vulnerability allows attackers to send many small parts to exhaust CPU resources.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.5.5 or later
Fixed in 6.5.5
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Tornado 6.5.5 or later to receive the patch that adds limits on multipart part count. Consider implementing request rate limiting or part count limits at the load balancer/proxy level as an additional defense-in-depth measure.

Recommended fix High confidence

Tornado 6.5.5

  1. Check the current Tornado version by running `python -c "import tornado; print(tornado.version)"` or `pip show tornado`
  2. Upgrade Tornado to version 6.5.5 or later using pip: `pip install --upgrade tornado>=6.5.5`
  3. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the new version matches or exceeds 6.5.5

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

Fix this in Tornado Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,720
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,752.

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-2026-31958 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
  • 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