CVE-2026-61668 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) CWE-295 vulnerability in dirac. A fix is available for dirac — see the affected versions and patch details below.
DIRAC: Pilot code downloaded over unverified HTTPS connection
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-61668 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
dirac🐍dirac🐍diracReal-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 second stage pilot (pilot.tar) is downloaded by the initial wrapper script without any verification of the webservers' SSL certificate and the contained script is subsequently executed. The checksum is tested, but the reference checksum file is downloaded over the same unvalidated channel.
Details
The pilot wrapper downloads and executes the main second stage pilot script, but the SSL validation on this connection is explicitly disabled (to match old python < 2.7.9 behaviour): https://github.com/DIRACGrid/DIRAC/blob/integration/src/DIRAC/WorkloadManagementSystem/Utilities/PilotWrapper.py#L292-L296
This means that the second stage pilot code is not verified in any way and could potentially be altered by a man-in-the-middle attack to execute arbitrary code in the pilot context (i.e. with access to the pilot proxy/credentials).
The HTTPS connection should be validated against both the system certificates and $X509_CERT_DIR and fail if neither validate correctly.
Impact
This would require a man-in-the-middle style attack against a grid site's network (i.e. changing the DNS or routing to redirect the pilot's connection); this is likely to be difficult which probably limits the potential impact.
Patched versions:
https://pypi.org/project/DIRAC/8.0.79/ https://pypi.org/project/DIRAC/9.0.22/ https://pypi.org/project/DIRAC/9.1.10/
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | dirac | ≥ 6.20.1&&< 8.0.79 | 8.0.79pip install --upgrade 'dirac==8.0.79' |
| 🐍PyPI | dirac | ≥ 8.1.0a1&&< 9.0.22 | 9.0.22pip install --upgrade 'dirac==9.0.22' |
| 🐍PyPI | dirac | ≥ 9.1.0&&< 9.1.10 | 9.1.10pip install --upgrade 'dirac==9.1.10' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for dirac, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update dirac to 8.0.79 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-61668 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-61668 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.