External Control of File Name or Path
CWE-73
The product allows user input to control or influence paths or file names that are used in filesystem operations.
We track 436 vulnerabilities of this type. 99% are rated high or critical, and the average CVSS score is 8.3. 6 have been exploited in real attacks.
How this weakness is prevented
- Architecture and Design: When the set of filenames is limited or known, create a mapping from a set of fixed input values (such as numeric IDs) to the actual filenames, and reject all other inputs. For example, ID 1 could map to inbox.txt and ID 2 could map to profile.txt. Features such as the ESAPI AccessReferenceMap provide this capability.
- Architecture and Design Operation: Run your code in a jail or similar sandbox environment that enforces strict boundaries between the process and the operating system. This may effectively restrict all access to files within a particular directory. Examples include the Unix chroot jail and AppArmor. In general, managed code may provide some protection. This may not be a feasible solution, and it only limits the impact to the operating system; the rest of your application may still be subject to compromise. Be careful to avoid CWE-243 and other weaknesses related to jails.
- Architecture and Design: For any security checks that are performed on the client side, ensure that these checks are duplicated on the server side, in order to avoid CWE-602. Attackers can bypass the client-side checks by modifying values after the checks have been performed, or by changing the client to remove the client-side checks entirely. Then, these modified values would be submitted to the server.
- Implementation: Use a built-in path canonicalization function (such as realpath() in C) that produces the canonical version of the pathname, which effectively removes.. sequences and symbolic links (CWE-23, CWE-59).
- Installation Operation: Use OS-level permissions and run as a low-privileged user to limit the scope of any successful attack.
Latest External Control of File Name or Path vulnerabilities
- 7.5 High severity
securedrop-client: Absolute Path Traversal
SecureDrop Client is a desktop app for journalists to securely communicate with sources and handle submissions on the SecureDrop Workstation. In versions 0.17.4 and below, a compromised SecureDrop Server can achieve code execution on the Client's virtual machi
- 9.9 Critical severity
firebird: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Firebird is an open-source relational database management system. In versions prior to 5.0.4, 4.0.7 and 3.0.14, the external engine plugin loader concatenates a user-supplied engine name into a filesystem path without filtering path separators or .. components
- 8.1 High severity
jellyfin: External Control of File Name or Path
Jellyfin is an open source self hosted media server. Versions prior to 10.11.7 contain a vulnerability chain in the LiveTV M3U tuner endpoint (POST /LiveTv/TunerHosts), where the tuner URL is not validated, allowing local file read via non-HTTP paths and Serve
- 10.0 Critical severity
WebPerfect Image Suite: External Control of File Name or Path
Unisys WebPerfect Image Suite versions 3.0.3960.22810 and 3.0.3960.22604 expose an unauthenticated WCF SOAP endpoint on TCP port 1208 that accepts unsanitized file paths in the ReadLicense action's LFName parameter, allowing remote attackers to trigger SMB con
- 7.1 High severity
wpForo Forum: External Control of File Name or Path
The wpForo Forum plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary File Deletion in versions up to and including 3.0.2. This is due to a two-step logic flaw: the topic_add() and topic_edit() action handlers accept arbitrary user-supplied data[*] arrays from $_RE
- 7.8 High severity
NoMachine: External Control of File Name or Path
NoMachine External Control of File Path Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of NoMachine. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code
- 7.1 High severity
NoMachine: External Control of File Name or Path
NoMachine External Control of File Path Arbitrary File Deletion Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to delete arbitrary files on affected installations of NoMachine. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code
- 8.3 High severity
chamilo-lms: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Chamilo LMS is a learning management system. Prior to 1.11.38, there is a path traversal in main/exercise/savescores.php leading to arbitrary file feletion. User input from $_REQUEST['test'] is concatenated directly into filesystem path without canonicalizatio
- 9.8 Critical severity
JP1/IT Desktop Management 2 - Manager: External Control of File Name or Path
Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in JP1/IT Desktop Management 2 - Manager on Windows, JP1/IT Desktop Management 2 - Operations Director on Windows, Job Management Partner 1/IT Desktop Management 2 - Manager on Windows, JP1/IT Desktop Management - Manager on
- 7.2 High severity
chyrp-lite: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Chyrp Lite is an ultra-lightweight blogging engine. Prior to 2026.01, a path traversal vulnerability exists in the administration console that allows an administrator or a user with Change Settings permission to change the uploads path to any folder. This vuln
- 8.1 High severity
ferret: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Ferret is a declarative system for working with web data. Prior to 2.0.0-alpha.4, a path traversal vulnerability in Ferret's IO::FS::WRITE standard library function allows a malicious website to write arbitrary files to the filesystem of the machine running Fe
- 8.1 High severity
SillyTavern: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
SillyTavern is a locally installed user interface that allows users to interact with text generation large language models, image generation engines, and text-to-speech voice models. Prior to version 1.17.0, a path traversal vulnerability in /api/chats/import
- 8.1 High severity
tinacms: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Tina is a headless content management system. Prior to version 2.2.2, a path traversal vulnerability in @tinacms/graphql allows unauthenticated users to write and overwrite arbitrary files within the project root. This is achieved by manipulating the relativeP
- 8.4 High severity
Private Family Album: External Control of File Name or Path
An arbitrary file overwrite vulnerability in Tinybeans Private Family Album App v5.9.5-prod allows attackers to overwrite critical internal files via the file import process, leading to arbitrary code execution or information exposure.
- 8.4 High severity
Ace Scanner: External Control of File Name or Path
An arbitrary file overwrite vulnerability in Deep Thought Industries ACE Scanner PDF Scanner v1.4.5 allows attackers to overwrite critical internal files via the file import process, leading to arbitrary code execution or information exposure.
- 7.3 High severity
Leave Application System: External Control of File Name or Path
A vulnerability was detected in SourceCodester Leave Application System 1.0. This affects an unknown part. Performing a manipulation of the argument page results in file inclusion. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. The exploit is now public and ma
- 9.0 Critical severity
Cast To Tv: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
An arbitrary file overwrite vulnerability in UXGROUP LLC Cast to TV Screen Mirroring v2.2.77 allows attackers to overwrite critical internal files via the file import process, leading to arbtrary code execution or information exposure.
- 8.6 High severity
Voice Recorder: External Control of File Name or Path
An arbitrary file overwrite vulnerability in UXGROUP LLC Voice Recorder v10.0 allows attackers to overwrite critical internal files via the file import process, leading to arbitrary code execution or information exposure.
- 9.8 Critical severity
Neo.maru: External Control of File Name or Path
An arbitrary file overwrite vulnerability in MaruNuri LLC v2.0.23 allows attackers to overwrite critical internal files via the file import process, leading to arbitrary code execution or information exposure.
- 9.8 Critical severity
Document Translator: External Control of File Name or Path
An arbitrary file overwrite vulnerability in DeftPDF Document Translator v54.0 allows attackers to overwrite critical internal files via the file import process, leading to arbitrary code execution or information exposure.
- 7.2 High severity
basercms: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
baserCMS is a website development framework. Prior to version 5.2.3, a path traversal vulnerability exists in the theme file management API (/baser/api/admin/bc-theme-file/theme_files/add.json) that allows arbitrary file write. An authenticated administrator c
- 8.1 High severity
fireshare: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Fireshare facilitates self-hosted media and link sharing. In version 1.5.1, an authenticated path traversal vulnerability in Fireshare’s chunked upload endpoint allows an attacker to write arbitrary files outside the intended upload directory. The `checkSum` m
- 8.1 High severity
FileRise: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
FileRise is a self-hosted web file manager / WebDAV server. From version 1.0.1 to before version 3.10.0, the resumableIdentifier parameter in the Resumable.js chunked upload handler (UploadModel::handleUpload()) is concatenated directly into filesystem paths w
- 9.9 Critical severity
langflow: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Langflow is a tool for building and deploying AI-powered agents and workflows. Versions 1.2.0 through 1.8.1 have a bypass of the patch for CVE-2025-68478 (External Control of File Name), leading to the root architectural issue within `LocalStorageService` rema
- 7.5 High severity
siyuan: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
SiYuan is a personal knowledge management system. Prior to version 3.6.2, the Siyuan kernel exposes an unauthenticated file-serving endpoint under `/appearance/*filepath.` Due to improper path sanitization, attackers can perform directory traversal and read ar
- 7.5 High severity
SQLBot: External Control of File Name or Path
SQLBot is an intelligent data query system based on a large language model and RAG. Versions prior to 1.7.0 contain a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability that allows an attacker to retrieve arbitrary system and application files from the server. A
- 9.1 Critical severity
siyuan: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
SiYuan is a personal knowledge management system. In versions 3.6.0 and below, POST /api/import/importSY and POST /api/import/importZipMd write uploaded archives to a path derived from the multipart filename field without sanitization, allowing an admin to wri
- 9.8 Critical severity
Zoom Workplace: Externally Controlled Reference to a Resource in Another Sphere
External Control of File Name or Path in the Mail feature of Zoom Workplace for Windows before 6.6.0 may allow an unauthenticated user to conduct an escalation of privilege via network access.
- 8.0 High severity
mcp-atlassian: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
MCP Atlassian is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Atlassian products (Confluence and Jira). Prior to version 0.17.0, the `confluence_download_attachment` MCP tool accepts a `download_path` parameter that is written to without any directory boundary en
- 7.1 High severity
SICAM SIAPP SDK: External Control of File Name or Path
A vulnerability has been identified in SICAM SIAPP SDK (All versions < V2.1.7). The affected application performs file deletion without properly validating the file path or target. An attacker could delete files or sockets that the affected process has permiss
- 7.8 High severity
SICAM SIAPP SDK: External Control of File Name or Path
A vulnerability has been identified in SICAM SIAPP SDK (All versions < V2.1.7). The affected application builds shell commands with caller-provided strings and executes them. An attacker could influence the executed command, potentially resulting in command in
- 8.1 High severity
budibase: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Budibase is a low code platform for creating internal tools, workflows, and admin panels. In 3.31.5 and earlier, a path traversal vulnerability in the PWA (Progressive Web App) ZIP processing endpoint (POST /api/pwa/process-zip) allows an authenticated user wi
- 7.5 High severity
OpenClaw: External Control of File Name or Path
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.14 contain a local file inclusion vulnerability in BlueBubbles extension (must be installed and enabled) media path handling that allows attackers to read arbitrary files from the local filesystem. The sendBlueBubblesMedia fun
- 8.1 High severity
OpenClaw: External Control of File Name or Path
OpenClaw versions prior to 2026.2.12 fail to validate the sessionFile path parameter, allowing authenticated gateway clients to write transcript data to arbitrary locations on the host filesystem. Attackers can supply a sessionFile path outside the sessions di
- 8.5 High severity
ZimaOS: External Control of File Name or Path
ZimaOS is a fork of CasaOS, an operating system for Zima devices and x86-64 systems with UEFI. In version 1.5.2-beta3, users are restricted from deleting internal system files or folders through the application interface. However, when interacting directly wit
- 9.9 Critical severity
ZimaOS: External Control of File Name or Path
ZimaOS is a fork of CasaOS, an operating system for Zima devices and x86-64 systems with UEFI. In version 1.5.2-beta3, the application enforces restrictions in the frontend/UI to prevent users from creating files or folders in internal OS paths. However, when
- 10.0 Critical severity
cloud-hypervisor: External Control of File Name or Path
Cloud Hypervisor is a Virtual Machine Monitor for Cloud workloads. Versions 34.0 through 50.0 arevulnerable to arbitrary host file exfiltration (constrained by process privileges) when using virtio-block devices backed by raw images. A malicious guest can over
- 7.1 High severity
ADB-Explorer: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
ADB Explorer is a fluent UI for ADB on Windows. Versions 0.9.26020 and below have an unvalidated command-line argument that allows any user to trigger recursive deletion of arbitrary directories on the Windows filesystem. ADB Explorer accepts an optional path
- 8.8 High severity
server: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Music Assistant is an open-source media library manager that integrates streaming services with connected speakers. Versions 2.6.3 and below allow unauthenticated network-adjacent attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations. The music/playlis
- 7.5 High severity
penpot: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Penpot is an open-source design tool for design and code collaboration. Prior to version 2.13.2, an authenticated user can read arbitrary files from the server by supplying a local file path (e.g. `/etc/passwd`) as a font data chunk in the `create-font-variant