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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2019-16789

🗓️ 18 Aug 2025 00:00:00Reported by TenableType 
nessus
 nessus
🔗 www.tenable.com👁 4 Views

Unpatched Waitress <=1.4.0 behind proxy enables HTTP smuggling via Transfer-Encoding; fix 1.4.1.

Related
Refs
Code
ReporterTitlePublishedViews
Family
AlpineLinux
CVE-2019-16789
26 Dec 201916:40
alpinelinux
AstraLinux
Astra Linux - уязвимость в waitress
3 May 202623:59
astralinux
Circl
CVE-2019-16789
17 Mar 202411:41
circl
CNVD
Waitress Environment Issue Vulnerability
27 Dec 201900:00
cnvd
CVE
CVE-2019-16789
26 Dec 201916:40
cve
Cvelist
CVE-2019-16789 HTTP Request Smuggling in Waitress: Invalid whitespace characters in headers
26 Dec 201916:40
cvelist
Debian
[SECURITY] [DLA 3000-1] waitress security update
12 May 202221:44
debian
Debian CVE
CVE-2019-16789
26 Dec 201916:40
debiancve
Tenable Nessus
Debian DLA-3000-1 : waitress - LTS security update
13 May 202200:00
nessus
Tenable Nessus
EulerOS 2.0 SP8 : python-waitress (EulerOS-SA-2020-1879)
28 Aug 202000:00
nessus
Rows per page
#%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80900
##
# (C) Tenable, Inc.
##

include('compat.inc');

if (description)
{
  script_id(250362);
  script_version("1.1");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_modification_date", value:"2025/08/18");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2019-16789");

  script_name(english:"Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2019-16789");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be
patched.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied
patch available.

  - In Waitress through version 1.4.0, if a proxy server is used in front of waitress, an invalid request may
    be sent by an attacker that bypasses the front-end and is parsed differently by waitress leading to a
    potential for HTTP request smuggling. Specially crafted requests containing special whitespace characters
    in the Transfer-Encoding header would get parsed by Waitress as being a chunked request, but a front-end
    server would use the Content-Length instead as the Transfer-Encoding header is considered invalid due to
    containing invalid characters. If a front-end server does HTTP pipelining to a backend Waitress server
    this could lead to HTTP request splitting which may lead to potential cache poisoning or unexpected
    information disclosure. This issue is fixed in Waitress 1.4.1 through more strict HTTP field validation.
    (CVE-2019-16789)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-16789");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
"There is no known solution at this time.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"agent", value:"unix");
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N");
  script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:U/RL:OF/RC:C");
  script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N");
  script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2019-16789");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"false");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vendor_unpatched", value:"true");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2019/12/26");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2025/08/18");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:waitress");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"generated_plugin", value:"current");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_family(english:"Misc.");

  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2025 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info2.nasl", "set_linux_os_id.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/cpu", "Host/local_checks_enabled", "global_settings/vendor_unpatched", "Host/OS/identifier");
  script_require_ports("Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-16.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-18.04");

  exit(0);
}

if (!get_kb_item("global_settings/vendor_unpatched")) exit(0, "Unpatched Vulnerabilities Detection not active.");
if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
if (empty_or_null(get_one_kb_item("Host/Debian/dpkg-l"))) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);

include('linux_unpatched.inc');

var distro_constraints_array = {
  "Ubuntu Linux-16.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "16.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "python-waitress"},
          {"reference": "python-waitress-doc"},
          {"reference": "python3-waitress"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-18.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "18.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "python-waitress"},
          {"reference": "python-waitress-doc"},
          {"reference": "python3-waitress"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
};

var distro_constraints_values = linux_unpatched::get_distro_constraints(distro_constraints_arr:distro_constraints_array);
if (empty_or_null(distro_constraints_values)) audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');
var report = linux_unpatched::check_unpatched_constraints(distro_constraints_values:distro_constraints_values);

if (!empty_or_null(report))
{
  security_report_v4(
      port       : 0,
      severity   : SECURITY_WARNING,
      extra      : report
  );
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');
}

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18 Aug 2025 00:00Current
6.3Medium risk
Vulners AI Score6.3
CVSS 26.4
CVSS 3.17.1 - 8.2
EPSS0.00882
4