CVE-2026-35412 — directus
HIGHCVE-2026-35412 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.1) CWE-863 vulnerability in directus. A fix is available for directus — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Directus has a TUS Upload Authorization Bypass Allows Arbitrary File Overwrite
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-35412.
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-2026-35412 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 378,156 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
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
directusnpmDescription
Summary
Directus' TUS resumable upload endpoint (/files/tus) allows any authenticated user with basic file upload permissions to overwrite arbitrary existing files by UUID. The TUS controller performs only collection-level authorization checks, verifying the user has some permission on directus_files, but never validates item-level access to the specific file being replaced. As a result, row-level permission rules (e.g., "users can only update their own files") are completely bypassed via the TUS path while being correctly enforced on the standard REST upload path.
Impact
- Arbitrary file overwrite: Any authenticated user with basic TUS upload permissions can overwrite any file in
directus_filesby UUID, regardless of row-level permission rules. - Permanent data loss: The victim file's original stored bytes are deleted from storage and replaced with attacker-controlled content.
- Metadata corruption: The victim file's database record is updated with the attacker's filename, type, and size metadata.
Privilege escalation potential: If admin-owned files (e.g., application assets, templates) are stored in
directus_files, a low-privilege user could replace them with malicious content.
Workaround
Disable TUS uploads by setting TUS_ENABLED=false if resumable uploads are not required.
Credit
This vulnerability was discovered and reported by bugbunny.ai.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | directus | all versions | 11.16.1npm install directus@11.16.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for directus, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update directus to 11.16.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-35412 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-2026-35412 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-35412. 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-2026-35412 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-35412 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.