GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H

Workarounds

Replace the built-in retry middlewares (RedirectMiddleware and MetaRefreshMiddleware) with custom ones that implement the fix from Scrapy 2.11.2, and verify that they work as intended.

References

This security issue was reported by @mvsantos at https://github.com/scrapy/scrapy/issues/457.

Scrapy was following redirects regardless of the URL protocol, so redirects were working for data://, file://, ftp://, s3://, and any other scheme defined in the DOWNLOAD_HANDLERS setting.

However, HTTP redirects should only work between URLs that use the http:// or https:// schemes.

A malicious actor, given write access to the start requests (e.g. ability to define start_urls) of a spider and read access to the spider output, could exploit this vulnerability to:

• Redirect to any local file using the file:// scheme to read its contents.
• Redirect to an ftp:// URL of a malicious FTP server to obtain the FTP username and password configured in the spider or project.
• Redirect to any s3:// URL to read its content using the S3 credentials configured in the spider or project.

For file:// and s3://, how the spider implements its parsing of input data into an output item determines what data would be vulnerable. A spider that always outputs the entire contents of a response would be completely vulnerable, while a spider that extracted only fragments from the response could significantly limit vulnerable data.

GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H has a CVSS score of 6.5 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, low 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 (2.11.2); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

Upgrade to Scrapy 2.11.2.

1. What is GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H? GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H is a medium-severity security vulnerability in Scrapy (pip), affecting versions < 2.11.2. It is fixed in 2.11.2.
2. How severe is GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H? GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H has a CVSS score of 6.5 (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.
3. Which versions of Scrapy are affected by GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H? Scrapy (pip) versions < 2.11.2 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H? Yes. GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H is fixed in 2.11.2. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H 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 GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H 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 GHSA-23J4-MW76-5V7H? Upgrade Scrapy to 2.11.2 or later.

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