CVE-2020-11037

Workarounds

Site owners who are unable to upgrade to the new versions can use user- or group-based privacy restrictions to restrict access to sensitive information; these are unaffected by this vulnerability.

A potential timing attack exists on pages or documents that have been protected with a shared password through Wagtail's "Privacy" controls. This password check is performed through a character-by-character string comparison, and so an attacker who is able to measure the time taken by this check to a high degree of accuracy could potentially use timing differences to gain knowledge of the password. (This is understood to be feasible on a local network, but not on the public internet.)

Privacy settings that restrict access to pages / documents on a per-user or per-group basis (as opposed to a shared password) are unaffected by this vulnerability.

Multiple concurrent operations access a shared resource without proper synchronization, producing unpredictable results depending on timing. Typical impact: TOCTOU exploits, data corruption, or privilege escalation.

CVE-2020-11037 has a CVSS score of 6.1 (Medium). The vector is requires local access, high privileges required, and no user interaction. 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 (2.7.3, 2.8.2, 2.9); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 2.7.3 (for the LTS 2.7 branch), Wagtail 2.8.2 and Wagtail 2.9.

1. What is CVE-2020-11037? CVE-2020-11037 is a medium-severity race condition vulnerability in wagtail (pip), affecting versions < 2.7.3. It is fixed in 2.7.3, 2.8.2, 2.9. Multiple concurrent operations access a shared resource without proper synchronization, producing unpredictable results depending on timing.
2. How severe is CVE-2020-11037? CVE-2020-11037 has a CVSS score of 6.1 (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-2020-11037? wagtail (pip) versions < 2.7.3 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2020-11037? Yes. CVE-2020-11037 is fixed in 2.7.3, 2.8.2, 2.9. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2020-11037 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2020-11037 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-2020-11037 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-2020-11037?
   • Upgrade wagtail to 2.7.3 or later
   • Upgrade wagtail to 2.8.2 or later
   • Upgrade wagtail to 2.9 or later