CVE-2022-24761

HTTP Request Smuggling in waitress

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: March 17, 2022 at 12:40 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:32 AM UTC
3 products affected across 3 vendorsDebian LinuxWaitressWaitress

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

Waitress is a Web Server Gateway Interface server for Python 2 and 3. When using Waitress versions 2.1.0 and prior behind a proxy that does not properly validate the incoming HTTP request matches the RFC7230 standard, Waitress and the frontend proxy may disagree on where one request starts and where it ends. This would allow requests to be smuggled via the front-end proxy to waitress and later behavior. There are two classes of vulnerability that may lead to request smuggling that are addressed by this advisory: The use of Python's `int()` to parse strings into integers, leading to `+10` to be parsed as `10`, or `0x01` to be parsed as `1`, where as the standard specifies that the string should contain only digits or hex digits; and Waitress does not support chunk extensions, however it was discarding them without validating that they did not contain illegal characters. This vulnerability has been patched in Waitress 2.1.1. A workaround is available. When deploying a proxy in front of waitress, turning on any and all functionality to make sure that the request matches the RFC7230 standard. Certain proxy servers may not have this functionality though and users are encouraged to upgrade to the latest version of waitress instead.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 2.1.1
Affected range stops below 2.1.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 2.1.1
Affected range stops below 2.1.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (5)

x_refsource_MISCRelease NotesThird Party Advisory
https://github.com/Pylons/waitress/releases/tag/v2.1.1
Mailing Listx_refsource_MLISTThird Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/05/msg00011.html
Vendor Advisoryx_refsource_DEBIANThird Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2022/dsa-5138

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.5HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-444

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