Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-6232

Python ≤ 3.8.20

Public PoC
Published
03 September 2024
Modified
03 November 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.022 81th percentile
Risk Priority 63 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-6232 is a high-severity Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (CWE-1333) vulnerability in Python Python. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked in the top 19% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

There is a MEDIUM severity vulnerability affecting CPython. Regular expressions that allowed excessive backtracking during tarfile.TarFile header parsing are vulnerable to ReDoS via specifically-crafted tar archives.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
T1499.003 Application Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may target resource intensive features of applications to cause a denial of service (DoS), denying availability to those applications.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-12084Same product: Python Python
CVE-2024-7592Same product: Python Python
CVE-2023-36632Same product: Python Python
CVE-2026-4224Same product: Python Python
CVE-2025-13837Same product: Python Python
CVE-2025-13836Same product: Python Python
CVE-2026-15308Same product: Python Python
CVE-2025-6075Same product: Python Python
CVE-2026-6019Same product: Python Python
CVE-2023-33595Same product: Python Python

Affected Assets

python
python
3.13.0 · ≤ 3.8.20 · 3.9.0 — 3.9.20 · 3.10.0 — 3.10.15

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover inefficient regex patterns via performance or static analysis.

Development standards and tools can require safe regex construction and forbid known exponential patterns.

Denial-of-service protections limit resource exhaustion caused by expensive regex evaluation.

Input validation can constrain data that would otherwise trigger worst-case regex complexity.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent inefficient regex via reviews, static analysis, and safe libraries.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover ReDoS issues in existing code but do not stop their introduction.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing can detect and reject regex patterns with exponential worst-case complexity.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates review of algorithmic efficiency, directly addressing ReDoS-prone regex.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify input-validation rules that limit regex complexity.

prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage avoidance of computationally expensive constructs such as catastrophic backtracking.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly prohibit or limit the use of inefficient regular expressions.

References