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Findings

CVE-2024-3220

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 cre…

Published Feb 14, 2025 · updated Oct 14, 2026

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.

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

  1. Feb 14, 2025 · NIST NVD

    Detected

    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 “/e

  2. Oct 14, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Updated

    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 “/e

Sources

  • CVE.orgVulnerability recordCVE-2024-3220

    Official CVE identifier

    cve.org
  • FIRST EPSSExploitation probabilityCVE-2024-3220

    30-day exploitation probability 0.5%

    first.org
  • NIST NVDVulnerability recordCVE-2024-3220

    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 interpre

    nvd.nist.gov

References