How severe is CVE-2023-35840?

CVE-2023-35840 has a CVSS score of 6.5/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-35840?

CVE-2023-35840 affects the following packages: studio-42/elfinder (Packagist). Ecosystems affected: Packagist.

How do I fix CVE-2023-35840?

Update studio-42/elfinder to 2.1.62 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-35840 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-35840 in my Packagist dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for studio-42/elfinder, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-35840 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

Is CVE-2023-35840 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 3 known exploit references for CVE-2023-35840, including 3 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2023-35840?

CVE-2023-35840 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.9%, placing it in the 80th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2023-35840?

CVE-2023-35840 is classified as Path Traversal (CWE-22). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was CVE-2023-35840 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-35840 was published on June 19, 2023 and was last updated on October 28, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐘

🐘 Packagist

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2023-35840 — elfinder

MEDIUMFix: Studio-42/elFinder@bb9aaa7

CVE-2023-35840 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Path Traversal vulnerability in studio-42/elfinder. 3 public exploit or proof-of-concept references are indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for studio-42/elfinder — see the affected versions and patch details below.

elFinder vulnerable to path traversal in LocalVolumeDriver connector

Also known asGHSA-wm5g-p99q-66g4

Published

Jun 19, 2023

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

3 known

Exploitation data as of Nov 6, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-35840.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs80th percentile — riskier than 80% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

1 pkg affected

🐘studio-42/elfinder

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

Impact

Path Traversal vulnerability in PHP LocalVolumeDriver connector. This vulnerability can be exploited by allowing untrusted users to write to the local file system.

This issue was caused by incomplete validity checking of the supplied request parameters. That problem has been fixed in elFinder Version 2.1.62.

Patches

This vulnerability has been fixed in elFinder 2.1.62. Installation managers should update to the latest version as soon as possible.

Workarounds

If you cannot update for some reason, you must stop using it or prohibit writing to untrusted users.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐘Packagist	`studio-42/elfinder`	all versions	2.1.62`composer require studio-42/elfinder:^2.1.62`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

elfinderstd42

< 2.1.62

range

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

_joinPath in elFinderVolumeLocalFileSystem.class.php in elFinder before …

github.comNVDJun 2023

Report on github.com

github.comNVDJun 2023

Report on github.com

github.comNVDJun 2023

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for studio-42/elfinder, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update studio-42/elfinder to 2.1.62 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-35840 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact Path Traversal vulnerability in PHP LocalVolumeDriver connector. This vulnerability can be exploited by allowing untrusted users to write to the local file system. This issue was caused by incomplete validity checking of the supplied request parameters. That problem has been fixed in elFinder Version 2.1.62. ### Patches This vulnerability has been fixed in elFinder 2.1.62. Installation managers should update to the latest version as soon as possible. ### Workarounds If you cannot update for some reason, you must stop using it or prohibit writing to untrusted users.