GHSA-gc5v-m9x4-r6x2 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.4) CWE-377 vulnerability in requests. A fix is available for requests — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Requests has Insecure Temp File Reuse in its extract_zipped_paths() utility function
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 GHSA-gc5v-m9x4-r6x2.
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-gc5v-m9x4-r6x2 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 377,238 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
requestsReal-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
Impact
The requests.utils.extract_zipped_paths() utility function uses a predictable filename when extracting files from zip archives into the system temporary directory. If the target file already exists, it is reused without validation. A local attacker with write access to the temp directory could pre-create a malicious file that would be loaded in place of the legitimate one.
Affected usages
Standard usage of the Requests library is not affected by this vulnerability. Only applications that call extract_zipped_paths() directly are impacted.
Remediation
Upgrade to at least Requests 2.33.0, where the library now extracts files to a non-deterministic location.
If developers are unable to upgrade, they can set TMPDIR in their environment to a directory with restricted write access.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | requests | all versions | 2.33.0pip install --upgrade 'requests==2.33.0' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for requests, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update requests to 2.33.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-gc5v-m9x4-r6x2 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 GHSA-gc5v-m9x4-r6x2 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-gc5v-m9x4-r6x2. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 | rhaii/model-opt-cuda-rhel9:1787151832 | RHSA-2026:57383 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI 3.4 | rhelai3/disk-image-cuda-rhel9:1787310717 | RHSA-2026:59144 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI 3.4 | rhelai3/bootc-aws-cuda-rhel9:1787253912 | RHSA-2026:59151 |
| Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.18 | odf4/cephcsi-rhel9:1786705347 | RHSA-2026:56431 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-gc5v-m9x4-r6x2 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-gc5v-m9x4-r6x2 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.