CVE-2024-3220Default mimetype known files writeable on Windows
- 2.3LowCVSS base score
- 0.71%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 46% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
There is a defect in the CPython standard library module “mimetypes” where on Windows the default list of known file locations are writable meaning other users can create invalid files to cause MemoryError to be raised on Python runtime startup or have file extensions be interpreted as the incorrect file type. This defect is caused by the default locations of Linux and macOS platforms (such as “/etc/mime.types”) also being used on Windows, where they are user-writable locations (“C:\etc\mime.types”). To work-around this issue a user can call mimetypes.init() with an empty list (“[]”) on Windows platforms to avoid using the default list of known file locations.
Timeline
ID reserved
By PSF
- 11 months later
· 11 months later
Published
- 21 months later
· 21 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSFCNA (assigner) | 4.0 | Low2.3 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 4.0 | Low2.3 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.71% · top 46% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Low 2.3.
Affected products
Python Software Foundation · CPython
- affected < 3.11.18
- affected 3.12.0 – < 3.12.16
- affected 3.13.0 – < 3.13.18
- affected 3.14.0 – < 3.14.9
- affected 3.15.0 – < 3.15.1
- affected 3.16.0a1 – < 3.16.0
References
References10
- https://mail.python.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/CDXW34ND2LSAOYAR5N6UNONP4ZBX4D6R/ (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisory
- https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/159428 (opens in a new tab)issue-tracking
- https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/04a29bf8f9ff8526cd96cb7368400173303a390a (opens in a new tab)patch
- https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/5550519259656cbb8eeac09e3dbc0d5c248a4dea (opens in a new tab)patch
- https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/76f4555c4ff10f5dda58d6528c17787df41e256c (opens in a new tab)patch
- https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/2f00690fd5a75305e02c99628a41439179266f29 (opens in a new tab)patch
- https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/35dd324f6e30735162a68cde84bb04a169004325 (opens in a new tab)patch
- https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/8d4286a3f41d36f42c4b4cf5c4451a5a8c23fe87 (opens in a new tab)patch
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/02/14/8 (opens in a new tab)
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20250314-0001/ (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2024-31812 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2024-3220)Record last updated .