CVE-2025-50819
BaseFortify
Publication date: 2025-07-15
Last updated on: 2025-07-15
Assigner: MITRE
Description
Description
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| beiyuouo | arxiv-daily | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-22 | The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
CVE-2025-50819 is a high-severity directory traversal (path traversal) vulnerability in the Python package arxiv-daily. It occurs because the application does not properly sanitize user-controlled input from the topic.yml configuration file. Maliciously crafted topic or subtopic values can include path traversal sequences like "../" that allow attackers to create or overwrite files and directories outside the intended docs/ directory. This can lead to unauthorized file system modifications, such as overwriting sensitive files or creating directories outside the allowed path. [1]
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
This vulnerability can allow an attacker with local access and low privileges to write arbitrary files outside the intended docs/ directory. This can result in overwriting critical system files such as .bashrc or crontab files, potentially causing denial-of-service by filling disk space or corrupting system configurations. The impact includes high integrity and availability damage without compromising confidentiality. [1]
How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?
You can detect this vulnerability by manually inspecting the topic.yml configuration file for unsafe path traversal patterns such as '../'. For example, you can use the following command to search for such patterns in topic.yml: grep -E '\.\./' topic.yml Additionally, running the tool (python daily_arxiv.py run) with a crafted topic.yml containing path traversal sequences can demonstrate the vulnerability by creating directories outside the intended docs/ folder. Monitoring unexpected file or directory creation outside docs/ can also indicate exploitation. [1]
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
Immediate mitigation steps include manually inspecting the topic.yml file for unsafe characters or path traversal sequences like '../' and removing or sanitizing them. Until an official patch is released, run the tool within a container or jailed environment to limit potential damage from exploitation. Applying input sanitization using libraries such as pathvalidate to neutralize path traversal patterns is recommended once you can update the code. For example, sanitize topic and subtopic inputs using pathvalidate's sanitize_filename function. [1]