GHSA-h4m5-qpfp-3mpv is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) Path Traversal vulnerability in babel. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for babel — see the affected versions and patch details below.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-h4m5-qpfp-3mpv 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
babelReal-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
Babel.Locale in Babel before 2.9.1 allows attackers to load arbitrary locale .dat files (containing serialized Python objects) via directory traversal, leading to code execution.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | babel | all versions | 2.9.1pip install --upgrade 'babel==2.9.1' |
Affected Products
debian linuxdebianbabelpocooResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for babel, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update babel to 2.9.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-h4m5-qpfp-3mpv is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
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.
It is rather uncommon for applications to use Babel.Locale() with an untrusted attacker-controlled language argument. A static language abbreviation string (e.g. "en") is most commonly used instead. For this reason, this flaw has been rated as having a security impact of Moderate.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | python27:2.7-8050020210811095446.3e7ace8b | RHSA-2021:4151 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | python38:3.8-8050020210811101222.e3d35cca | RHSA-2021:4162 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | babel-0:2.5.1-7.el8 | RHSA-2021:4201 |
| Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | python27-babel-0:0.9.6-10.el7 | RHSA-2021:3252 |
| Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | rh-python38-babel-0:2.7.0-12.el7 | RHSA-2021:3254 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-h4m5-qpfp-3mpv in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.