Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
medium 6.8

CVE-2020-28473 json

Web Cache Poisoning

published 2021-01-18 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-qhx9-7hx7-cp4r , PYSEC-2021-129 , EUVD-2021-0038

cvss
6.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.8%
EPSS 1.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 78%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The package bottle from 0 and before 0.12.19 are vulnerable to Web Cache Poisoning by using a vector called parameter cloaking. When the attacker can separate query parameters using a semicolon (;), they can cause a difference in the interpretation of the request between the proxy (running with default configuration) and the server. This can result in malicious requests being cached as completely safe ones, as the proxy would usually not see the semicolon as a separator, and therefore would not include it in a cache key of an unkeyed parameter.

Patch / fix

  • pypi bottle 0.12.19
  • n/a bottle 0.12.19
  • python-bottle Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 0.12.19-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28473

  • python-bottle Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 0.12.13-1ubuntu0.1
  • python-bottle Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 0.12.15-2.1ubuntu0.1
  • python-bottle Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 0.12.0-1ubuntu0.1~esm2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-28473

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • python-bottle SLE Module for Python 2 15 SP2, SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP2 0.12.13-3.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:0483-1

  • python-bottle openSUSE Leap 15.2 0.12.13-lp152.4.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2021:0302-1

  • python-bottle Arch Linux 0.12.19-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1485

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-28473 updated cvss 6.8

python-bottle: Web Cache Poisoning by using a vector called parameter cloaking may lead to integrity and availability compromise

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.79% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 78% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • snyk.io https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-PYTHON-BOTTLE-1017108 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 6.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C
CNA 3.1 6.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 5.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
GitHub 3.1 6.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
pypi bottle
<0.12.19
0.12.19

Affected products

  • n/a bottle

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-444 Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.