CVE-2020-5236
5.7 · MEDIUMOverview
CVE-2020-5236 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting agendaless waitress. It was published on February 4, 2020 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.7 (MEDIUM).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.7, rated MEDIUM. It can be exploited remotely over the network. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.
Technical Description
Waitress version 1.4.2 allows a DOS attack When waitress receives a header that contains invalid characters. When a header like "Bad-header: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\x10" is received, it will cause the regular expression engine to catastrophically backtrack causing the process to use 100% CPU time and blocking any other interactions. This allows an attacker to send a single request with an invalid header and take the service offline. This issue was introduced in version 1.4.2 when the regular expression was updated to attempt to match the behaviour required by errata associated with RFC7230. The regular expression that is used to validate incoming headers has been updated in version 1.4.3, it is recommended that people upgrade to the new version of Waitress as soon as possible.
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from agendaless. Update waitress to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
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References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2020-5236?
CVE-2020-5236 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting agendaless waitress. It was published on February 4, 2020 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.7 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2020-5236?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.7, rated MEDIUM. It can be exploited remotely over the network. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2020-5236?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from agendaless. Update waitress to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2020-5236?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2020-5236 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
How CyberStrike Helps
AI agents map your attack surface to find vulnerabilities like this one.
Automated penetration testing that runs continuously, not just quarterly.
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