Crawl4AI Has Local File Inclusion in Docker API via file:// URLsGHSA-vx9w-5cx4-9796
HIGHGHSA-vx9w-5cx4-9796 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) Path Traversal vulnerability in crawl4ai. A fix is available for crawl4ai — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-vx9w-5cx4-9796.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
crawl4aiReal-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
A local file inclusion vulnerability exists in the Crawl4AI Docker API. The /execute_js, /screenshot, /pdf, and /html endpoints accept file:// URLs, allowing attackers to read arbitrary files from the server filesystem.
Attack Vector:
POST /execute_js
{
"url": "file:///etc/passwd",
"scripts": ["document.body.innerText"]
}
Impact
An unauthenticated attacker can:
- Read sensitive files (/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, application configs)
- Access environment variables via /proc/self/environ
- Discover internal application structure
- Potentially read credentials and API keys
Workarounds
- Disable the Docker API
- Add authentication to the API
- Use network-level filtering
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | crawl4ai | all versions | 0.8.0pip install --upgrade 'crawl4ai==0.8.0' |
Affected Products
crawl4aikidocodeDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for crawl4ai, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update crawl4ai to 0.8.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-vx9w-5cx4-9796 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.
How to detect GHSA-vx9w-5cx4-9796
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id ghsa-vx9w-5cx4-9796 -u https://target- Template
- Crawl4AI < 0.8.0 - Local File Inclusion
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Unauthenticated remote attackers can read sensitive files, exposing credentials, API keys, and internal application details.
- Remediation
- Update to version 0.8.0 or later.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (str4k3r, Aryu-RU), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-vx9w-5cx4-9796 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.