CVE-2024-41672 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Information Exposure vulnerability in duckdb. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for duckdb — see the affected versions and patch details below.
DuckDB: sniff_csv provides filesystem access even when enable_external_access is disabled
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-2024-41672.
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-2024-41672 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 377,636 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
duckdbReal-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
Summary
Content in filesystem is accessible for reading using sniff_csv, even with enable_external_access=false.
Details
During a pentest, a security researcher was able to access environment variable data and other system data by using the sniff_csv function, even though we set enable_external_access to false.
PoC
SET enable_external_access=false;
SET lock_configuration=true;
SELECT Columns FROM sniff_csv('/proc/self/environ');
Impact
Provides an attacker with access to filesystem even when access is expected to be disabled and other similar functions do NOT provide access.
For example select * from read_csv('/proc/self/environ') fails with a permission error.
There seems to be two vectors to this vulnerability:
- Access to files that should otherwise not be allowed. (We expect
Permission Error: Scanning CSV files is disabled through configurationand not to provide any access to the file or even acknowledge that it exists). - The content from a (non-csv?) file can be read (e.g.
/etc/hosts,proc/self/environ, etc) even though that doesn't seem to be the intent of the sniff_csv function (my understanding is it's intending to provide information about the shape of the data, but not provide the data itself).
Workaround
It is possible to work around the issue by disabling the local file system using the disabled_filesystems setting:
SET disabled_filesystems='LocalFileSystem';
SET lock_configuration=true;
SELECT Columns FROM sniff_csv('/proc/self/environ');
will result in Permission Error: File system LocalFileSystem has been disabled by configuration.
Fix
A fix has been merged into the main branch (https://github.com/duckdb/duckdb/pull/13133), and will be released with the next DuckDB release.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | duckdb | ≥ 1.0.0&&< 1.1.0 | 1.1.0pip install --upgrade 'duckdb==1.1.0' |
Research 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 duckdb, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update duckdb to 1.1.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-41672 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-2024-41672 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-41672. 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-2024-41672 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-41672 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.