OWASP CRS: Whitespace padding in filenames bypasses file upload extension checks
13Vexday Risk Score
No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.
ssvc Trackcvss 6.8epss 3.6%
exploitation probability
3.6%top 12% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
nono source reports it
The OWASP core rule set (CRS) is a set of generic attack detection rules for use with compatible web application firewalls. Prior to versions 3.3.9 and 4.25.0, a bypass was identified in OWASP CRS that allows uploading files with dangerous extensions (.php, .phar, .jsp, .jspx) by inserting whitespace padding in the filename (e.g. photo. php or shell.jsp ). The affected rules do not normalize whitespace before evaluating the file extension regex, so the dot-extension check fails to match. This issue has been patched in versions 3.3.9 and 4.25.0.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N
Affected products
coreruleset · corerulesetReferences
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2026/Apr/0https://github.com/coreruleset/coreruleset/commit/2a8c63512811c5dd74472becebb79a783e68ff02https://github.com/coreruleset/coreruleset/pull/4546https://github.com/coreruleset/coreruleset/pull/4547https://github.com/coreruleset/coreruleset/pull/4548https://github.com/coreruleset/coreruleset/releases/tag/v3.3.9https://github.com/coreruleset/coreruleset/releases/tag/v4.25.0https://github.com/coreruleset/coreruleset/security/advisories/GHSA-rw5f-9w43-gv2whttp://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/03/29/2http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/04/18/4