Summary
Waitress vulnerable to DoS leading to high CPU usage/resource exhaustion
Workarounds
No work-around.
References
Impact
When a remote client closes the connection before waitress has had the opportunity to call getpeername() waitress won't correctly clean up the connection leading to the main thread attempting to write to a socket that no longer exists, but not removing it from the list of sockets to attempt to process. This leads to a busy-loop calling the write function.
A remote attacker could run waitress out of available sockets with very little resources required.
CVE-2024-49769 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 (3.0.1); 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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Waitress 3.0.1 contains fixes that remove the race condition.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2024-49769? CVE-2024-49769 is a high-severity security vulnerability in waitress (pip), affecting versions < 3.0.1. It is fixed in 3.0.1.
- How severe is CVE-2024-49769? CVE-2024-49769 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.
- Which versions of waitress are affected by CVE-2024-49769? waitress (pip) versions < 3.0.1 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2024-49769? Yes. CVE-2024-49769 is fixed in 3.0.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2024-49769 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2024-49769 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-2024-49769 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-2024-49769? Upgrade
waitressto 3.0.1 or later.