Cross-site Scripting (XSS) in Django REST Framework

published 2020-09-30 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-fx83-3ph3-9j2q , PYSEC-2020-263 , EUVD-2020-0073

cvss: 6.1; version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 1.3%; EPSS 1.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 70%
public exploits: 0; none known

A flaw was found in Django REST Framework versions before 3.12.0 and before 3.11.2. When using the browseable API viewer, Django REST Framework fails to properly escape certain strings that can come from user input. This allows a user who can control those strings to inject malicious <script> tags, leading to a cross-site-scripting (XSS) vulnerability.

Patch / fix

fixed in 2 distros 2

pypi djangorestframework 3.11.2
encode django_rest_framework 3.12.0

debian opensuse

djangorestframework Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.12.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-25626

python-djangorestframework openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.18.0-1.1
python-djangorestframework Package Hub 15 SP2 3.11.2-bp152.2.3.1
python-djangorestframework-test Package Hub 15 SP2 3.11.2-bp152.2.3.1
python-djangorestframework openSUSE Leap 15.2 3.11.2-lp152.2.3.1
python-djangorestframework-test openSUSE Leap 15.2 3.11.2-lp152.2.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:11571-1 openSUSE-SU-2021:0338-1 openSUSE-SU-2021:0322-1

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-2020-25626 updated 2026-06-26 cvss 5.4

django-rest-framework: XSS Vulnerability in API viewer

Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 calamari-server
affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.6 for RHEL 7 ansible-tower-36/ansible-tower 3.6.6-1
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:4137
Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.7 for RHEL 7 ansible-tower-37/ansible-tower-rhel7 3.7.3-1
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:4136

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

1.30% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 70% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.1	6.1	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD	2.0	4.3	AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
GitHub	3.1	6.1	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem	package	affected	fixed in
pypi	djangorestframework	<3.11.2	3.11.2

Affected products

n/a Django REST Framework

Classification

Weakness

CWE-20 Improper Input Validation
CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation

References

debian.org /security/2022/dsa-5186
vendor-advisory, web, third-party-advisory
bugzilla.redhat.com /show_bug.cgi?id=1878635
web, issue-tracking, vendor-advisory, report
security.netapp.com /advisory/ntap-20201016-0003/
third-party-advisory, advisory
nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2020-25626
advisory
github.com /advisories/GHSA-fx83-3ph3-9j2q
advisory
github.com /encode/django-rest-framework
package
github.com /pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/djangorestframework/PYSEC-2020-263.yaml
web
security.netapp.com /advisory/ntap-20201016-0003
web

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.

Summary