Untrusted Search Path
CWE-426
The product searches for critical resources using an externally-supplied search path that can point to resources that are not under the product's direct control.
Some of the most common variants of untrusted search path are: In various UNIX and Linux-based systems, the PATH environment variable may be consulted to locate executable programs, and LD_PRELOAD may be used to locate a separate library. Programming languages may have their own paths for locating code, e.g. PERL5LIB in Perl. In various Microsoft-based systems, the PATH environment variable is consulted to locate a DLL, if the DLL is not found in other paths that appear earlier in the search order.
We track 211 vulnerabilities of this type. 100% are rated high or critical, and the average CVSS score is 7.8. 3 have been exploited in real attacks.
How this weakness is prevented
- Architecture and Design Implementation: Hard-code the search path to a set of known-safe values (such as system directories), or only allow them to be specified by the administrator in a configuration file. Do not allow these settings to be modified by an external party. Be careful to avoid related weaknesses such as CWE-426 and CWE-428.
- Implementation: When invoking other programs, specify those programs using fully-qualified pathnames. While this is an effective approach, code that uses fully-qualified pathnames might not be portable to other systems that do not use the same pathnames. The portability can be improved by locating the full-qualified paths in a centralized, easily-modifiable location within the source code, and having the code refer to these paths.
- Implementation: Remove or restrict all environment settings before invoking other programs. This includes the PATH environment variable, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and other settings that identify the location of code libraries, and any application-specific search paths.
- Implementation: Check your search path before use and remove any elements that are likely to be unsafe, such as the current working directory or a temporary files directory.
- Implementation: Use other functions that require explicit paths. Making use of any of the other readily available functions that require explicit paths is a safe way to avoid this problem. For example, system() in C does not require a full path since the shell can take care of it, while execl() and execv() require a full path.
Latest Untrusted Search Path vulnerabilities
- 7.8 High severity
notepad-plus-plus: Untrusted Search Path
Notepad++ is a free and open-source source code editor. From 8.9.4 until 8.9.6, Notepad++ contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the installer. During installation, the installer invokes powershell.exe without using an absolute path after setti
- 7.1 High severity
OpenClaw: Untrusted Search Path
OpenClaw before 2026.5.2 contains a path traversal vulnerability in maintenance task execution that allows workspace-derived service paths to influence trash command selection. Attackers can execute unintended local executables from operator-unintended paths d
- 7.1 High severity
OpenClaw: Untrusted Search Path
OpenClaw before 2026.5.2 contains an environment variable injection vulnerability where workspace .env STATE_DIRECTORY could influence bundled runtime dependency roots. Attackers can manipulate the STATE_DIRECTORY variable to load runtime dependencies from uni
- 7.1 High severity
OpenClaw: Untrusted Search Path
OpenClaw before 2026.4.29 contains a path traversal vulnerability in the install helper that allows workspace .env files to override the npm_execpath configuration used for bundled runtime dependency installation. Attackers with workspace access can execute un
- 7.1 High severity
OpenClaw: Untrusted Search Path
OpenClaw before 2026.5.2 contains an environment variable injection vulnerability allowing workspace .env files to influence Python runtime selection through CLOUDSDK_PYTHON during Gmail setup gcloud execution. Attackers with repository access can manipulate t
- 7.8 High severity
OpenClaw: Untrusted Search Path
OpenClaw before 2026.5.27 contains an arbitrary code execution vulnerability in skill install flows where workspace .env files can override the Homebrew executable selection. Attackers with access to trusted operator workspaces can execute unintended Homebrew-
- 7.8 High severity
Waves Central: Untrusted Search Path
Waves Central for macOS versions 13.0.9 through 16.5.5 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability. A trusted XPC client component included with the product is signed with hardened runtime entitlements that permit dynamic library injection. A local atta
- 8.0 High severity
AWS Advanced Go Wrapper: Untrusted Search Path
An untrusted search path issue in the GlobalDatabasePlugin in the AWS Advanced Go Wrapper for Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL will allow a remote authenticated low-privilege actor to escalate privileges to those of another Amazon RDS user, including rds_superuser, vi
- 8.0 High severity
AWS Advanced JDBC Wrapper: Untrusted Search Path
An untrusted search path issue in the GlobalDatabasePlugin in the AWS Advanced JDBC Wrapper for Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL will allow a remote authenticated low-privilege actor to escalate privileges to those of another Amazon RDS user, including rds_superuser,
- 9.9 Critical severity
cloudnative-pg: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
CloudNativePG is a platform designed to manage PostgreSQL databases within Kubernetes environments. Prior to 1.29.1 and 1.28.3, the CloudNativePG metrics exporter opens its PostgreSQL connection as the postgres superuser via the pod-local Unix socket, then dem
- 9.0 Critical severity
Algernon is a small self-contained pure-Go web server.
Algernon is a small self-contained pure-Go web server. Prior to 1.17.7, when Algernon is asked for any URL path that resolves to a directory without an index file, DirPage walks upward through parent directories — past the configured server root — looking for
- 9.8 Critical severity
turborepo: Untrusted Search Path
Turborepo is a high-performance build system for JavaScript and TypeScript codebases. From 1.1.0 to before 2.9.14, Turborepo can be vulnerable to arbitrary code execution when run in untrusted repositories that contain malicious Yarn configuration. In affected
- 7.8 High severity
Zoom Rooms: Untrusted Search Path
Untrusted search path in the installer for Zoom Rooms for Windows before version 7.0.0 may allow an authenticated user to enable an escalation of privilege via local access.
- 7.8 High severity
GlobalProtect App: Untrusted Search Path
Multiple local privilege escalation vulnerabilities in the Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect™ app allow a local user to escalate their privileges to NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM on Windows and root on macOS and Linux. This enables a non-administrative user to execute ar
- 7.8 High severity
coreutils: Untrusted Search Path
A vulnerability exists in the chroot utility of uutils coreutils when using the --userspec option. The utility resolves the user specification via getpwnam() after entering the chroot but before dropping root privileges. On glibc-based systems, this can trigge
- 7.3 High severity
claude-code: Untrusted Search Path
Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. In versions prior to 2.1.75 on Windows, Claude Code loaded the system-wide default configuration from C:\ProgramData\ClaudeCode\managed-settings.json without validating directory ownership or access permissions. Because t
- 7.0 High severity
MobaXterm Home Edition: Untrusted Search Path
A vulnerability has been found in Mobatek MobaXterm Home Edition up to 26.1. This affects an unknown part in the library msimg32.dll. The manipulation leads to uncontrolled search path. An attack has to be approached locally. The attack is considered to have h
- 8.6 High severity
Adobe Framemaker: Untrusted Search Path
Adobe Framemaker versions 2022.8 and earlier are affected by an Untrusted Search Path vulnerability that might allow attackers to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user. If the application uses a search path to locate critical resources such
- 8.4 High severity
PraisonAI: Improper Control of Generation of Code
PraisonAI is a multi-agent teams system. Versions 4.5.138 and below are vulnerable to arbitrary code execution through automatic, unsanitized import of a tools.py file from the current working directory. Components including call.py (import_tools_from_file()),
- 7.8 High severity
PraisonAI: Improper Control of Generation of Code
PraisonAI is a multi-agent teams system. Prior to 4.5.128, PraisonAI automatically loads a file named tools.py from the current working directory to discover and register custom agent tools. This loading process uses importlib.util.spec_from_file_location and
- 7.0 High severity
opentelemetry-go: Untrusted Search Path
OpenTelemetry-Go is the Go implementation of OpenTelemetry. From 1.15.0 to 1.42.0, the fix for CVE-2026-24051 changed the Darwin ioreg command to use an absolute path but left the BSD kenv command using a bare name, allowing the same PATH hijacking attack on B
- 7.3 High severity
Checkmk: Untrusted Search Path
Local privilege escalation in Checkmk 2.2.0 (EOL), Checkmk 2.3.0 before 2.3.0p46, Checkmk 2.4.0 before 2.4.0p25, and Checkmk 2.5.0 (beta) before 2.5.0b3 allows a site user to escalate their privileges to root, by manipulating files in the site context that are
- 7.3 High severity
Hirschmann Industrial HiVision: Untrusted Search Path
Hirschmann Industrial HiVision version 08.1.03 prior to 08.1.04 and 08.2.00 contains a vulnerability in the execution of user-configured external applications that allows a local attacker to execute arbitrary binaries. Due to insufficient path sanitization, an
- 7.8 High severity
Foxit PDF Reader: Untrusted Search Path
The application's installer runs with elevated privileges but resolves system executables and DLLs using untrusted search paths that can include user-writable directories, allowing a local attacker to place malicious binaries with the same names and have them
- 7.0 High severity
UltraVNC: Untrusted Search Path
A security flaw has been discovered in UltraVNC up to 1.6.4.0. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality in the library version.dll of the component Service. The manipulation results in uncontrolled search path. The attack needs to be approached loc
- 7.0 High severity
Notepad2: Untrusted Search Path
A weakness has been identified in Flos Freeware Notepad2 4.2.25. This impacts an unknown function in the library TextShaping.dll. Executing a manipulation can lead to uncontrolled search path. The attack is restricted to local execution. The attack requires a
- 7.0 High severity
Notepad2: Untrusted Search Path
A security flaw has been discovered in Flos Freeware Notepad2 4.2.25. This affects an unknown function in the library PROPSYS.dll. Performing a manipulation results in uncontrolled search path. The attack is only possible with local access. The attack is consi
- 7.8 High severity
ScreenToGif: Untrusted Search Path
ScreenToGif is a screen recording tool. In versions from 2.42.1 and prior, ScreenToGif is vulnerable to DLL sideloading via version.dll . When the portable executable is run from a user-writable directory, it loads version.dll from the application directory in
- 7.8 High severity
OpenClaw: Untrusted Search Path
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.22 contain an arbitrary shell execution vulnerability in shell environment fallback that trusts the unvalidated SHELL path from the host environment. An attacker with local environment access can inject a malicious SHELL varia
- 7.8 High severity
OpenClaw: Untrusted Search Path
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.22 on macOS contain a path validation bypass vulnerability in the exec-approval allowlist mode that allows local attackers to execute unauthorized binaries by exploiting basename-only allowlist entries. Attackers can execute s
- 7.8 High severity
OpenClaw: Untrusted Search Path
OpenClaw versions 2026.1.21 prior to 2026.2.19 contain a path hijacking vulnerability in tools.exec.safeBins that allows attackers to bypass allowlist checks by controlling process PATH resolution. Attackers who can influence the gateway process PATH or launch
- 7.8 High severity
OpenClaw: Untrusted Search Path
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.24 contain a policy bypass vulnerability in the safeBins allowlist evaluation that trusts static default directories including writable package-manager paths like /opt/homebrew/bin and /usr/local/bin. An attacker with write ac
- 8.6 High severity
Illustrator Desktop 2026: Untrusted Search Path
Illustrator versions 29.8.4, 30.1 and earlier are affected by an Untrusted Search Path vulnerability that might allow attackers to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim
- 7.0 High severity
UltraVNC: Untrusted Search Path
A weakness has been identified in UltraVNC 1.6.4.0 on Windows. This affects an unknown function in the library cryptbase.dll of the component Windows Service. This manipulation causes uncontrolled search path. The attack requires local access. A high degree of
- 8.8 High severity
timescaledb: Untrusted Search Path
TimescaleDB is a time-series database for high-performance real-time analytics packaged as a Postgres extension. From version 2.23.0 to 2.25.1, PostgreSQL uses the search_path setting to locate unqualified database objects (tables, functions, operators). If th
- 7.8 High severity
ERP F2: Untrusted Search Path
ERP developed by eAI Technologies has a DLL Hijacking vulnerability, allowing authenticated local attackers to place a crafted DLL file in the same directory as the program, thereby executing arbitrary code.
- 7.3 High severity
notepad-plus-plus: Untrusted Search Path
Notepad++ is a free and open-source source code editor. An Unsafe Search Path vulnerability (CWE-426) exists in versions prior to 8.9.2 when launching Windows Explorer without an absolute executable path. This may allow execution of a malicious explorer.exe if
- 7.0 High severity
Total VPN: Untrusted Search Path
A weakness has been identified in Total VPN 0.5.29.0 on Windows. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the file C:\Program Files\Total VPN\win-service.exe. Executing a manipulation can lead to unquoted search path. It is possible to lau
- 7.0 High severity
Notepad2: Untrusted Search Path
A security flaw has been discovered in Flos Freeware Notepad2 4.2.22/4.2.23/4.2.24/4.2.25. Affected is an unknown function in the library Msimg32.dll. Performing a manipulation results in uncontrolled search path. Attacking locally is a requirement. The attack
- 7.0 High severity
ezPDF DRM Reader: Untrusted Search Path
A vulnerability was identified in Unidocs ezPDF DRM Reader and ezPDF Reader 2.0/3.0.0.4. This affects an unknown part in the library SHFOLDER.dll. Such manipulation leads to uncontrolled search path. The attack needs to be performed locally. Attacks of this na