Summary
Workarounds
New comments can be disabled by setting WAGTAILADMIN_COMMENTS_ENABLED = False in the Django settings file.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Ihor Marhitych for identifying 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)
Impact
When notifications for new replies in comment threads are sent, they are sent to all users who have replied or commented anywhere on the site, rather than only in the relevant threads. This means that a user could listen in to new comment replies on pages they have not had editing access to, as long as they have left a comment or reply somewhere on the site.
CVE-2022-21683 has a CVSS score of 3.5 (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 (2.15.2); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
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. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
Remediation advice
A patched version has been released as Wagtail 2.15.2 (for the current LTS), which restores the intended behaviour - to send notifications for new replies to the participants in the active thread only (editing permissions are not considered).
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2022-21683? CVE-2022-21683 is a medium-severity security vulnerability in wagtail (pip), affecting versions >= 2.13, < 2.15.2. It is fixed in 2.15.2.
- How severe is CVE-2022-21683? CVE-2022-21683 has a CVSS score of 3.5 (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.
- Which versions of wagtail are affected by CVE-2022-21683? wagtail (pip) versions >= 2.13, < 2.15.2 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2022-21683? Yes. CVE-2022-21683 is fixed in 2.15.2. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2022-21683 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-21683 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
- What actually determines whether CVE-2022-21683 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.
- How do I fix CVE-2022-21683? Upgrade
wagtailto 2.15.2 or later.