CVE-2024-51998 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) Path Traversal vulnerability in changedetection-io. A fix is available for changedetection-io — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Path traversal using file URI scheme without supplying hostname in changedetection.io
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-2024-51998.
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
changedetection-ioReal-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
The validation for the file URI scheme falls short, and results in an attacker being able to read any file on the system. This issue only affects instances with a webdriver enabled, and ALLOW_FILE_URI false or not defined.
Details
The check used for URL protocol, is_safe_url, allows file: as a URL scheme:
It later checks if local files are permitted, but one of the preconditions for the check is that the URL starts with file://. The issue comes with the fact that the file URI scheme is not required to have double slashes.
A valid file URI must therefore begin with either
file:/path(no hostname),file:///path(empty hostname), orfile://hostname/path. — Wikipedia
PoC
- Open up a changedetection.io instance with a webdriver configured
- Create a new watch:
file:/etc/passwdor a similar path for your operating system. Enable webdriver mode - Wait for it to be checked
- Open preview
- Notice contents of the file
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | changedetection-io | all versions | 0.47.6pip install --upgrade 'changedetection-io==0.47.6' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for changedetection-io, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update changedetection-io to 0.47.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-51998 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
Is CVE-2024-51998 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.