CVE Watchtower

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CVE-2026-96748NVD

Vulnerability Summary

### Summary

PyMongo percent-decoded the entire host section of a connection string before splitting it into individual `host:port` entries. A percent-encoded `,` or `:` in a hostname therefore decoded into a real delimiter, injecting an additional attacker-chosen host and port into the client's seed list.

### Impact

An application that interpolates untrusted input into a MongoDB connection string -- for example, a tenant name or hostname fragment taken from a request -- could be made to add an attacker-controlled server to the seed list. Because `%2C` and `%3A` survive most URL-safety checks and only become delimiters inside PyMongo's parser, input that looks like a single hostname to the application becomes two hosts to the driver. The client may then perform topology discovery and authentication against the attacker's host, exposing credentials, or route operations to it.

Unix domain socket paths, the only host identifiers that legitimately require percent-encoding, are not affected.

### Patches

Fixed in PyMongo 4.18.2. Percent-decoding was moved into `split_hosts` and now applies only to Unix domain socket paths, identified by an unescaped `.sock` suffix before decoding, and only after splitting on `,`.

### Workarounds

Do not interpolate untrusted input into the host portion of a connection string. If unavoidable, reject or percent-decode-and-validate the value before building the URI.

### Details

The decoding was introduced in PyMongo 3.5.0 (PYTHON-1282), where `unquote_plus` was applied to the whole host section in `_validate_uri` and, later, `_parse_srv`, before the string was split on `,` and `:`.
Severity Level
HIGH(6.5)
Published Date
Sep 24, 2026
Last Modified
Oct 5, 2026
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation yet
CVE Record Status
Published
EPSS Score (30-Day)
0.26%Probability
Root Weakness (CWE)
Refer to the official MITRE database for detailed architectural specifications regarding this weakness.
CVSS v4.0 Base Metrics — Score 8.3
Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Attack RequirementsPresent
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
Confidentiality (Vulnerable System)Low
Integrity (Vulnerable System)High
Availability (Vulnerable System)None
Confidentiality (Subsequent System)None
Integrity (Subsequent System)None
Availability (Subsequent System)None
CVSS v3.1 Base Metrics — Score 6.5
Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityHigh
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityNone

Affected & Patched Versions

Affected Versions
  • pymongo >= 3.5.0, <= 4.18.1
Patched Versions
Not provided by Private for this CVE.
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🎁7-Day Free Trial — Try Pro or Team, no card required.
📧Email Delivery — Threat intel straight to your inbox.
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🚨All New CVEs — Be the first to know.
📈EPSS Spike Alerts — Catch rising risk before it peaks.
🎯Custom EPSS/CVSS — Filter noise, focus on risk.
🛡️Exploit Intel — A 2nd confirmed-exploit signal beyond KEV.
🐙GitHub Issues — Auto-tracked, no duplicates.
📬Weekly Digest — One clean summary, not inbox spam.
🏷️Watchlist Groups — Tag alerts by team (Infra/AppSec/SOC).
💬Webhooks — Slack & Teams integration.
🔀Smart Routing — Critical alerts to one channel, rest to another.
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