VulnerabilityPublished 1 Oct 2025Updated 4 Nov 2025

CVE-2025-59682: djangoproject Django · Relative Path Traversal

Affects djangoproject DjangoSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 3.1 Low.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

3.1Low

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 60% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: High
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: Low
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 1 Oct 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
djangoproject Django	Affected =4.2 =5.1 =5.2	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Upgrade Django to the fixed versions: 4.2.25 or later, 5.1.13 or later, or 5.2.7 or later, as applicable.
Avoid using untrusted or unauthenticated archive templates with the 'startapp --template' and 'startproject --template' commands.
Implement strict access controls on development and deployment environments to limit who can supply or modify template archives.
Use file system permissions and sandboxing to restrict where files can be extracted during template processing, preventing writes outside intended directories.
Incorporate integrity checks or cryptographic signatures on template archives to ensure authenticity and prevent tampering.
Monitor development and CI/CD pipelines for unusual file changes or unexpected archive usage.
Educate developers and DevOps teams about the risks of using external templates and the importance of applying security patches promptly.
Review and harden automated deployment scripts that invoke Django template commands to ensure they do not process untrusted inputs.

Description

An issue was discovered in Django 4.2 before 4.2.25, 5.1 before 5.1.13, and 5.2 before 5.2.7. The django.utils.archive.extract() function, used by the "startapp --template" and "startproject --template" commands, allows partial directory traversal via an archive with file paths sharing a common prefix with the target directory.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-59682 is generally low but non-negligible. Organizations using Django in their software development lifecycle, especially those leveraging the 'startapp --template' and 'startproject --template' commands with external or untrusted archive templates, could face risks of unauthorized file overwrites or injection. This could lead to integrity issues in source code or configuration files, potentially enabling further exploitation such as code execution if combined with other vulnerabilities or misconfigurations. The vulnerability does not affect confidentiality or availability directly, limiting its impact scope. However, in environments where development and deployment pipelines are automated and rely on template archives, the risk of supply chain compromise or insider threats exploiting this vulnerability increases. European organizations with strong software development sectors, including financial services, government, and technology companies, should be aware of this risk to avoid disruptions or breaches stemming from compromised Django projects. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the need for proactive mitigation.

CWE-23Relative Path Traversal (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessOWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product uses external input to construct a pathname that should be within a restricted directory, but it does not properly neutralize sequences such as ".." that can resolve to a location that is outside of that directory.
Implementation · Input Validation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
Implementation · Input Validation
Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174).
Operation · Firewall
Use an application firewall that can detect attacks against this weakness. It can be beneficial in cases in which the code cannot be fixed (because it is controlled by a third party), as an emergency prevention measure while more comprehensive software assurance measures are applied, or to provide defense in depth.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Relative Path Traversal (opens in a new tab)
Manipulating Web Input to File System Calls (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 4 Nov 2025, 22:14 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-23

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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