CVE-2021-32670 | Reflected cross-site scripting issue in Datasette

Datasette is an open source multi-tool for exploring and publishing data. The `?_trace=1` debugging feature in Datasette does not correctly escape generated HTML, resulting in a [reflected cross-site scripting](https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/xss/#reflected-xss-attacks) vulnerability. This vulnerability is particularly relevant if your Datasette installation includes authenticated features using plugins such as [datasette-auth-passwords](https://datasette.io/plugins/datasette-auth-passwords) as an attacker could use the vulnerability to access protected data. Datasette 0.57 and 0.56.1 both include patches for this issue. If you run Datasette behind a proxy you can workaround this issue by rejecting any incoming requests with `?_trace=` or `&_trace=` in their query string parameters.

Published: 2021-06-07 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-32670 is rated Moderate Risk (49/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.96%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-32670

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.59% 0.96% +0.37%
2 2025-06-18 0.73% 0.59% -0.13%
3 2025-03-30 0.73%

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-32670

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.2 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 2.7 [email protected]
6.1 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 2.7 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-32670

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-32670

GHSA-xw7c-jx9m-xh5g · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — Reflected cross-site scripting issue in Datasette

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-32670

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
datasette datasette < 0.56.1 cpe:2.3:a:datasette:datasette:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-32670

cvelogic Threat Intelligence