CVE-2021-3733
python: urllib: Regular expression DoS in AbstractBasicAuthHandler
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · August 10, 2021
Updated · June 28, 2026
Description
There's a flaw in urllib's AbstractBasicAuthHandler class. An attacker who controls a malicious HTTP server that an HTTP client (such as web browser) connects to, could trigger a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDOS) during an authentication request with a specially crafted payload that is sent by the server to the client. The greatest threat that this flaw poses is to application availability.
Statement
Applications that use AbstractBasicAuthHandler, HTTPBasicAuthHandler and ProxyBasicAuthHandler may be affected by this flaw. Other classes may use the vulnerable method http_error_auth_reqed in AbstractBasicAuthHandler as well.
This flaw is out of support scope for versions of Python shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 base OS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. For more information about support life cycles, please see https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 6.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption