CVE-2024-10940 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-497 vulnerability in langchain-core. A fix is available for langchain-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exposure of Sensitive System Information via ImagePromptTemplate in langchain-ai/langchain
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.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-10940.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-10940 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
langchain-core🐍langchain-core🐍langchain-coreReal-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
A vulnerability in langchain-core versions >=0.1.17,<0.1.53, >=0.2.0,<0.2.43, and >=0.3.0,<0.3.15 allows unauthorized users to read arbitrary files from the host file system. The issue arises from the ability to create langchain_core.prompts.ImagePromptTemplate's (and by extension langchain_core.prompts.ChatPromptTemplate's) with input variables that can read any user-specified path from the server file system. If the outputs of these prompt templates are exposed to the user, either directly or through downstream model outputs, it can lead to the exposure of sensitive information.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | langchain-core | ≥ 0.1.17&&< 0.1.53 | 0.1.53pip install --upgrade 'langchain-core==0.1.53' |
| 🐍PyPI | langchain-core | ≥ 0.2.0&&< 0.2.43 | 0.2.43pip install --upgrade 'langchain-core==0.2.43' |
| 🐍PyPI | langchain-core | ≥ 0.3.0&&< 0.3.15 | 0.3.15pip install --upgrade 'langchain-core==0.3.15' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for langchain-core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update langchain-core to 0.1.53 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-10940 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-10940 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-10940. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-10940 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-10940 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.