CVE-2024-3572

Workarounds

There is no easy workaround.

Disabling HTTP decompression altogether is impractical, as HTTP compression is a rather common practice.

However, it is technically possible to manually backport the 2.11.1 or 1.8.4 fix, replacing the corresponding components of an unpatched version of Scrapy with patched versions copied into your own code.

Acknowledgements

This security issue was reported by @dmandefy through huntr.com.

Scrapy limits allowed response sizes by default through the DOWNLOAD_MAXSIZE and DOWNLOAD_WARNSIZE settings.

However, those limits were only being enforced during the download of the raw, usually-compressed response bodies, and not during decompression, making Scrapy vulnerable to decompression bombs.

A malicious website being scraped could send a small response that, on decompression, could exhaust the memory available to the Scrapy process, potentially affecting any other process sharing that memory, and affecting disk usage in case of uncompressed response caching.

CVE-2024-3572 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). The vector is network-reachable, no 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 (2.11.1, 1.8.4); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

Upgrade to Scrapy 2.11.1.

If you are using Scrapy 1.8 or a lower version, and upgrading to Scrapy 2.11.1 is not an option, you may upgrade to Scrapy 1.8.4 instead.

1. What is CVE-2024-3572? CVE-2024-3572 is a high-severity security vulnerability in scrapy (pip), affecting versions >= 2.0.0, < 2.11.1. It is fixed in 2.11.1, 1.8.4.
2. How severe is CVE-2024-3572? CVE-2024-3572 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). 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 scrapy are affected by CVE-2024-3572? scrapy (pip) versions >= 2.0.0, < 2.11.1 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2024-3572? Yes. CVE-2024-3572 is fixed in 2.11.1, 1.8.4. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2024-3572 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2024-3572 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-2024-3572 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-2024-3572?
   • Upgrade scrapy to 2.11.1 or later
   • Upgrade scrapy to 1.8.4 or later

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