CVE-2020-11001

Workarounds

Site owners who are unable to upgrade to the new versions can disable the revision comparison view by adding the following URL route to the top of their project's urls.py configuration:

from django.views.generic.base import RedirectView

urlpatterns = [
    url(r'^admin/pages/(\d+)/revisions/compare/', RedirectView.as_view(url='/admin/')),
    # ...
]

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Vlad Gerasimenko for reporting this issue.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

• Visit Wagtail's support channels
• Email us at [email protected] (if you wish to send encrypted email, the public key ID is 0x6ba1e1a86e0f8ce8)

A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists on the page revision comparison view within the Wagtail admin interface. A user with a limited-permission editor account for the Wagtail admin could potentially craft a page revision history that, when viewed by a user with higher privileges, could perform actions with that user's credentials. The vulnerability is not exploitable by an ordinary site visitor without access to the Wagtail admin.

Untrusted input is rendered as active markup in a victim's browser, which can run script in their session. Typical impact: session or credential theft, and actions taken as the user.

CVE-2020-11001 has a CVSS score of 5.8 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, low privileges required, and user interaction required. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (2.7.2, 2.8.1); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 2.7.2 (for the LTS 2.7 branch) and Wagtail 2.8.1 (for the current 2.8 branch).

1. What is CVE-2020-11001? CVE-2020-11001 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in wagtail (pip), affecting versions >= 1.9.0, < 2.7.2. It is fixed in 2.7.2, 2.8.1. Untrusted input is rendered as active markup in a victim's browser, which can run script in their session.
2. How severe is CVE-2020-11001? CVE-2020-11001 has a CVSS score of 5.8 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which versions of wagtail are affected by CVE-2020-11001? wagtail (pip) versions >= 1.9.0, < 2.7.2 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2020-11001? Yes. CVE-2020-11001 is fixed in 2.7.2, 2.8.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2020-11001 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2020-11001 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether CVE-2020-11001 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix CVE-2020-11001?
   • Upgrade wagtail to 2.7.2 or later
   • Upgrade wagtail to 2.8.1 or later