CVE-2026-71493
Received Received - Intake

Symlink Path Traversal in Infracost

Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-71493, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.

Publication date: 2026-08-21

Last updated on: 2026-08-21

Assigner: GitHub, Inc.

Description

Infracost provides cloud cost intelligence for engineers, AI coding agents, and CI/CD. Prior to 0.10.45, the readFile, pathExists, isDir, and matchPaths template functions in internal/config/template/parser.go use a lexical filepath.Rel check and a leaf-only os.Lstat check that do not resolve an intermediate directory symlink. A repository can contain a path such as evil/file where evil points outside the checkout, causing os.ReadFile and related operations to follow the symlink and read runner-accessible files. The resulting content is rendered into generated configuration and can be surfaced through the Infracost dashboard or pull request comment, with greater impact in workflows that provide repository secrets. This issue is fixed in version 0.10.45.

CVSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published
2026-08-21
Last Modified
2026-08-21
Generated
2026-08-21
AI Q&A
2026-08-21
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
EUVD

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
infracost infracost to 0.10.45 (exc)

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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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.
CWE-59 The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.

Attack-Flow Graph

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Executive Summary

CVE-2026-71493 is a path traversal vulnerability in Infracost versions before 0.10.45. It allows attackers to read arbitrary files outside the repository by exploiting symlinks in directory paths. The vulnerability occurs because the readFile, pathExists, isDir, and matchPaths functions use lexical path checks that fail to resolve intermediate directory symlinks. An attacker can create a path like 'evil/file' where 'evil' is a symlink pointing outside the repository, bypassing security checks and reading sensitive files.

Detection Guidance

To detect this vulnerability, check the Infracost version installed on your system. Run: infracost --version. If the version is below 0.10.45, the system is vulnerable. Additionally, review repository configurations for symlinks in paths used by Infracost, especially in pull request workflows.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can expose sensitive files to unauthorized users, including secrets or configuration data. Attackers with pull request access can read files outside the repository, potentially stealing secrets if Infracost runs under pull_request_target or same-repository PRs. The impact ranges from limited exposure to full secret theft depending on the workflow configuration.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability could potentially violate compliance with GDPR and HIPAA by allowing unauthorized access to sensitive files such as configuration files, secrets, or other confidential data through symlink traversal. If exploited, it may lead to unauthorized data exposure, which is a violation of GDPR's data protection principles and HIPAA's requirement to protect protected health information.

Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade Infracost to version 0.10.45 or later immediately. If upgrading is not possible, avoid using pull_request_target workflows and restrict secrets for fork pull requests. Review and remove any symlinks in repository paths used by Infracost.

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