CVE-2023-2780 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-29 vulnerability in mlflow. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for mlflow — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Path Traversal: '\..\filename' in mlflow/mlflow
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-2780.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
mlflowReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
mlflow prior to 2.3.0 is vulnerable to path traversal due to a bypass of the fix for CVE-2023-1177.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | mlflow | all versions | 2.3.0pip install --upgrade 'mlflow==2.3.0' |
Affected Products
mlflowlfprojectsResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for mlflow, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update mlflow to 2.3.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-2780 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
How to detect CVE-2023-2780
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2023-2780 -u https://target- Template
- Mlflow <2.3.1 - Local File Inclusion Bypass
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Successful exploitation could allow an attacker to read sensitive files on the server.
- Remediation
- Upgrade Mlflow to version 2.3.1 or later to mitigate the vulnerability.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (iamnoooob, pdresearch), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-2780 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.