Summary
Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions in wagtail.contrib.settings
Workarounds
No workaround is available.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Victor Miti 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] (view our security policy for more information).
Impact
Due to an improperly applied permission check in the wagtail.contrib.settings module, a user with access to the Wagtail admin and knowledge of the URL of the edit view for a settings model can access and update that setting, even when they have not been granted permission over the model. The vulnerability is not exploitable by an ordinary site visitor without access to the Wagtail admin.
CVE-2024-35228 has a CVSS score of 5.5 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, 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 (6.0.5, 6.1.2); 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.
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Patched versions have been released as Wagtail 6.0.5 and 6.1.2. Wagtail releases prior to 6.0 are unaffected.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2024-35228? CVE-2024-35228 is a medium-severity security vulnerability in wagtail (pip), affecting versions >= 6.0.0, < 6.0.5. It is fixed in 6.0.5, 6.1.2.
- How severe is CVE-2024-35228? CVE-2024-35228 has a CVSS score of 5.5 (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-2024-35228? wagtail (pip) versions >= 6.0.0, < 6.0.5 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2024-35228? Yes. CVE-2024-35228 is fixed in 6.0.5, 6.1.2. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2024-35228 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2024-35228 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-2024-35228 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-2024-35228?
- Upgrade
wagtailto 6.0.5 or later - Upgrade
wagtailto 6.1.2 or later
- Upgrade