CVE-2026-1285VulnerabilityPublished 3 Feb 2026

CVE-2026-1285: djangoproject Django · Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity

Affects djangoproject DjangoSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High · fixed in 6.0.2 : patch djangoproject Django soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

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

EPSS: 1.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 66% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 6.0.2, 5.2.11, 4.2.28

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

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

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: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
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: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 3 Feb 2026
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 2026-10-26.

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 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

Upgrade Django and django to 6.0.2, 5.2.11 or 4.2.28.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
djangoprojectDjango	Affected >=6.0 <6.0.2 >=5.2 <5.2.11 >=4.2 <4.2.28	Fixed in 6.0.2 5.2.11 4.2.28
PyPIdjango`pkg:pypi/django`Other threats	Affected =6.0 =5.2 =4.2	Fixed in–
PyPIdjango`pkg:pypi/django`Other threats	Affected >=6.0 <6.0.2 >=5.2 <5.2.11 >=4.2 <4.2.28	Fixed in 6.0.2 5.2.11 4.2.28

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2026-1285, organizations should promptly upgrade Django to the fixed versions: 6.0.2 or later, 5.2.11 or later, and 4.2.28 or later. If immediate upgrading is not feasible, consider implementing input validation or sanitization to limit or reject inputs with excessive unmatched HTML tags before they reach the vulnerable truncation functions. Web application firewalls (WAFs) can be configured to detect and block suspicious payloads containing abnormal HTML tag patterns. Additionally, monitoring application performance and resource usage can help detect potential exploitation attempts early. Developers should audit their codebase for any custom usage of Truncator.chars() or Truncator.words() with html=True and avoid processing untrusted HTML content with these functions. Finally, ensure that all web-facing services using Django are behind rate limiting and other standard DoS protections to reduce the risk of large-scale exploitation.

Description

An issue was discovered in 6.0 before 6.0.2, 5.2 before 5.2.11, and 4.2 before 4.2.28. `django.utils.text.Truncator.chars()` and `Truncator.words()` methods (with `html=True`) and the `truncatechars_html` and `truncatewords_html` template filters allow a remote attacker to cause a potential denial-of-service via crafted inputs containing a large number of unmatched HTML end tags. Earlier, unsupported Django series (such as 5.0.x, 4.1.x, and 3.2.x) were not evaluated and may also be affected. Django would like to thank Seokchan Yoon for reporting this issue.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2026-1285 is a denial-of-service condition caused by resource exhaustion on servers running vulnerable Django versions. Organizations hosting web applications that rely on the affected Truncator methods or template filters with html=True are at risk of service disruption if attackers send crafted inputs containing numerous unmatched HTML end tags. This can lead to increased CPU usage, memory consumption, and potentially crash or severely degrade the responsiveness of the web application. Since Django is a popular web framework used worldwide across various industries, the scope of affected systems is broad. The vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity but can cause significant availability issues, impacting user experience, business operations, and potentially leading to financial losses or reputational damage. The ease of exploitation without authentication or user interaction further elevates the threat, making automated attacks feasible. Organizations with high-traffic web services or those exposed to untrusted user input are particularly vulnerable.

CWE-407Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: Low
An algorithm in a product has an inefficient worst-case computational complexity that may be detrimental to system performance and can be triggered by an attacker, typically using crafted manipulations that ensure that the worst case is being reached.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (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 26 Feb 2026, 19:02 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-407

Technical details

References

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