CVE-2024-22203: Whoogle Search Path Traversal vulnerability

Should you act?

Critical and remotely reachable

No known exploitation yet, but it is network-reachable without credentials. This signal is computed from CISA KEV, EPSS and CVSS data; it is not an editorial verdict.

• Not in CISA KEV, but CISA’s SSVC assessment records a public proof-of-concept, so attack code exists.
• EPSS 1.0%, percentile 63: FIRST’s model estimates a 1.0% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 63% of all scored CVEs (moderate). EPSS is a probability, not a verdict.
• Remotely reachable with no login and no user interaction. If the vulnerable service is exposed to the internet, prioritize it.
• Only applies if your dependency tree includes whoogle-search (PyPI) >= 0, < 0.8.4, fixed in 0.8.4. Check your lockfile, including transitive dependencies.

What it is

Whoogle Search is a self-hosted metasearch engine. In versions prior to 0.8.4, the element method in app/routes.py does not validate the user-controlled srctype and elementurl variables and passes them to the send method which sends a GET request on lines 339-343 in request.py, which leads to a server-side request forgery. This issue allows for crafting GET requests to internal and external resources on behalf of the server. For example, this issue would allow for accessing resources on the internal network that the server has access to, even though these resources may not be accessible on the internet. This issue is fixed in version 0.8.4.

From the GitHub advisory

Whoogle Search is a self-hosted metasearch engine. In versions prior to 0.8.4, the element method in app/routes.py does not validate the user-controlled srctype and elementurl variables and passes them to the send method which sends a GET request on lines 339-343 in request.py, which leads to a server-side request forgery. This issue allows for crafting GET requests to internal and external resources on behalf of the server. For example, this issue would allow for accessing resources on the internal network that the server has access to, even though these resources may not be accessible on the internet. This issue is fixed in version 0.8.4.

Weakness type: CWE-918.

Product: whoogle-search (PyPI) · Assigned by: GitHub_M · Published: 2024-01-23

Affected and fixed versions

Severity scores

• Attack vector: network (remotely reachable)
• Attack complexity: low
• Privileges required: none (no login)
• User interaction: none
• Scope: unchanged

CVSS measures how bad a flaw is if exploited, not how likely exploitation is. Read it next to the exploitation data below.

Exploitation and urgency

• CISA KEV: not listed (no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation known to CISA).
• CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation poc, automatable yes, technical impact total.
• FIRST EPSS (model of 2026-10-21): 1.01% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 63.

Timeline

• 2024-01-23 — CVE record published by GitHub_M
• 2024-03-14 — GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-q97g-c29h-x2p7 published (critical)
• 2024-11-13 — CVE record last updated

Sources and references

Original sources first. Version and fix details should always be confirmed against the vendor or project advisory.

Vulnerability records

1. GitHub Advisory GHSA-q97g-c29h-x2p7 github.com
2. CVE.org record CVE-2024-22203 cve.org
3. NVD entry CVE-2024-22203 nvd.nist.gov

Other references from the CVE record and advisory

1. securitylab.github.com securitylab.github.com
2. github.com github.com
3. github.com github.com
4. github.com github.com
5. github.com github.com
6. github.com github.com
7. github.com github.com
8. github.com github.com

Critical PyPI advisories · Today’s Security Digest