GHSA-x3r5-q6mj-m485 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.2) Path Traversal vulnerability in tough. A fix is available for tough — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Improper sanitization of target names
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-x3r5-q6mj-m485 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 379,145 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
toughReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
The tough library, prior to 0.12.0, does not properly sanitize target names when caching a repository, or when saving specific targets to an output directory. When targets are cached or saved, files could be overwritten with arbitrary content anywhere on the system.
AWS would like to thank https://github.com/jku for reporting this issue.
Patches
A fix is available in version 0.12.0.
Workarounds
No workarounds to this issue are known.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | tough | all versions | 0.12.0cargo update -p tough --precise 0.12.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for tough, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update tough to 0.12.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-x3r5-q6mj-m485 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-x3r5-q6mj-m485 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-x3r5-q6mj-m485. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-x3r5-q6mj-m485 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-x3r5-q6mj-m485 across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.