How severe is GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f?

GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f has a CVSS score of 5.9/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f?

GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f affects the following packages: aiohttp (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f?

Update aiohttp to 3.9.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f in my PyPI dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for aiohttp. 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.

How do I mitigate GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 14 known exploit references for GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f, including 1 documented proof-of-concept exploit on Exploit-DB and 7 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f?

GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 76.9%, placing it in the 99th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

What type of vulnerability is GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f?

GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f is classified as Path Traversal (CWE-22). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

Is there exploit tooling available for GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f?

A Nuclei detection template exists for GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f, meaning automated scanners can fingerprint it. Public exploit tooling significantly increases real-world risk — prioritize patching and ensure detection coverage. Exploit tooling should only ever be used in isolated, authorized testing environments.

When was GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f was published on January 29, 2024 and was last updated on February 4, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐍 PyPI

GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f

MEDIUM

aiohttp is vulnerable to directory traversal

Also known asCVE-2024-23334PYSEC-2024-24

Published

Jan 29, 2024

Updated

Feb 4, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

14 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

76.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk99th percentile0.00%

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.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐍aiohttp

Real-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

Improperly configuring static resource resolution in aiohttp when used as a web server can result in the unauthorized reading of arbitrary files on the system.

Details

When using aiohttp as a web server and configuring static routes, it is necessary to specify the root path for static files. Additionally, the option 'follow_symlinks' can be used to determine whether to follow symbolic links outside the static root directory. When 'follow_symlinks' is set to True, there is no validation to check if a given file path is within the root directory.This can lead to directory traversal vulnerabilities, resulting in unauthorized access to arbitrary files on the system, even when symlinks are not present.

i.e. An application is only vulnerable with setup code like:

app.router.add_routes([
    web.static("/static", "static/", follow_symlinks=True),  # Remove follow_symlinks to avoid the vulnerability
])

Impact

This is a directory traversal vulnerability with CWE ID 22. When using aiohttp as a web server and enabling static resource resolution with follow_symlinks set to True, it can lead to this vulnerability. This vulnerability has been present since the introduction of the follow_symlinks parameter.

Workaround

Even if upgrading to a patched version of aiohttp, we recommend following these steps regardless.

If using follow_symlinks=True outside of a restricted local development environment, disable the option immediately. This option is NOT needed to follow symlinks which point to a location within the static root directory, it is only intended to allow a symlink to break out of the static directory. Even with this CVE fixed, there is still a substantial risk of misconfiguration when using this option on a server that accepts requests from remote users.

Additionally, aiohttp has always recommended using a reverse proxy server (such as nginx) to handle static resources and not to use these static resources in aiohttp for production environments. Doing so also protects against this vulnerability, and is why we expect the number of affected users to be very low.

Patch: https://github.com/aio-libs/aiohttp/pull/8079/files

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`aiohttp`	≥ 1.0.5&&< 3.9.2	3.9.2

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-52474webappspython

aiohttp 3.9.1 - directory traversal PoC

by Beatriz Fresno Naumova · Feb 4, 2026

Exploit-DB Source

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for aiohttp. 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 aiohttp to 3.9.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f 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-5h86-8mv2-jq9f 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-5h86-8mv2-jq9f. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Summary Improperly configuring static resource resolution in aiohttp when used as a web server can result in the unauthorized reading of arbitrary files on the system. ### Details When using aiohttp as a web server and configuring static routes, it is necessary to specify the root path for static files. Additionally, the option 'follow_symlinks' can be used to determine whether to follow symbolic links outside the static root directory. When 'follow_symlinks' is set to True, there is no validation to check if a given file path is within the root directory.This can lead to directory traver

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-5h86-8mv2-jq9f across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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