GHSA-442q-2j6p-642g is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Path Traversal vulnerability in datamodel-code-generator. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-442q-2j6p-642g is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
datamodel-code-generator vulnerable to arbitrary local file read via XSD `schemaLocation` (`xs:include`/`xs:import`) path traversal, with no remote-ref gate
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 GHSA-442q-2j6p-642g.
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
GHSA-442q-2j6p-642g 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 371,625 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
datamodel-code-generatorReal-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
When generating models from an XML Schema (--input-file-type xmlschema), datamodel-code-generator resolves <xs:include>, <xs:import>, <xs:redefine>, and <xs:override> schemaLocation attributes against the source directory and reads the target with no restriction to the input/base directory. An attacker who controls the input XSD can read arbitrary files via ../ traversal or an absolute path, and the included schema's contents (type names, restrictions, enumerations) are folded into the generated output. Unlike the JSON-Schema $ref path, there is no allow_remote_refs control for XSD, so --no-allow-remote-refs does not mitigate it. This is an unauthenticated path-traversal / information-disclosure issue reachable in the default configuration.
Details
The XSD parser walks include-style children and reads each schemaLocation with only an is_file() check (src/datamodel_code_generator/parser/xmlschema.py):
location = (source_dir / schema_location).resolve() # .resolve() collapses ../, escapes base
if location in seen or not location.is_file():
continue
included_root = self._parse_schema(_read_xml_text(location, self.encoding), location)
schema_location is attacker-controlled and _read_xml_text does path.read_bytes(). Because (source_dir / schema_location).resolve() normalizes .. and accepts absolute paths, the resolved target can be any file the process can read; there is no is_relative_to(base_path) containment (contrast the JSON-Schema HTTP-local branch, which does enforce it). The same unbounded read occurs both during version detection and during the main include-processing pass, so the included content is incorporated into the generated module.
Related vectors that were tested and do NOT apply (stdlib xml.etree.ElementTree is used): external-entity XXE file read does not occur (ElementTree does not fetch external entities), and entity-expansion "billion laughs" is rejected by CPython's expat amplification limit.
PoC
Self-contained reproducer (creates a temp dir, runs the generator, cleans up): https://gist.github.com/thegr1ffyn/c7096b797926348875d888652867eeb4 (poc.py).
Minimal manual reproduction:
mkdir -p /tmp/x/secret /tmp/x/proj
cat > /tmp/x/secret/leak.xsd <<'EOF'
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:simpleType name="LEAK_5150"><xs:restriction base="xs:string"/></xs:simpleType>
</xs:schema>
EOF
cat > /tmp/x/proj/attack.xsd <<'EOF'
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:include schemaLocation="../../x/secret/leak.xsd"/>
<xs:element name="Root" type="LEAK_5150"/>
</xs:schema>
EOF
datamodel-codegen --input /tmp/x/proj/attack.xsd --input-file-type xmlschema --no-allow-remote-refs --output /tmp/x/out.py
grep LEAK_5150 /tmp/x/out.py # content from outside the project dir appears in generated code
An absolute schemaLocation="/abs/path/leak.xsd" works identically.
Impact
Arbitrary local file read / path traversal (CWE-22) leading to information disclosure (CWE-200). Any application, CI pipeline, or multi-tenant service that generates models from an attacker-supplied XSD and exposes (returns, logs, commits, renders) the generated code is affected. The attacker can read files outside the input tree whose data is addressable as XSD content (other schemas, configs), and the read itself is an arbitrary-file-access primitive. No flag mitigates it. The attacker controls only the input schema; no authentication or special privileges are required. (Raw bytes of files that are not valid XML are read into the process but not echoed verbatim, since parsing fails; verbatim disclosure applies to XML/XSD-shaped data.)
Suggested remediation
Reject resolved schemaLocation targets that are not resolved.is_relative_to(self.base_path), and bring XSD includes under the same remote/external-reference policy enforced for JSON-Schema $ref.
Maintainer status
Confirmed by maintainer review and regression tests. The private fix PR was merged and released in 0.62.0: https://github.com/koxudaxi/datamodel-code-generator-ghsa-442q-2j6p-642g/pull/1
Fix summary: reject XSD schemaLocation targets that resolve outside the input base path, including relative traversal and absolute paths.
Release status: fixed in 0.62.0. XML Schema input support was introduced in 0.59.0, so affected versions are >= 0.59.0, <= 0.61.0.
Validation: uv run --group test --extra http pytest tests/main/xmlschema/test_main_xmlschema.py passed locally; uv run --group fix ruff check src/datamodel_code_generator/parser/xmlschema.py tests/main/xmlschema/test_main_xmlschema.py passed.
Submitted by: Hamza Haroon (thegr1ffyn)
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | datamodel-code-generator | ≥ 0.59.0&&< 0.62.0 | 0.62.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for datamodel-code-generator. 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 datamodel-code-generator to 0.62.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-442q-2j6p-642g 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-442q-2j6p-642g 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-442q-2j6p-642g. 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-442q-2j6p-642g in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-442q-2j6p-642g across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.