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CVE PROGRAM SOURCE RECORD7.5 High

CVE-2026-96612

Path traversal in Hex via unvalidated dependency app names

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Status
Published
Published
Updated
Assigning organization
EEF

Description

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in hexpm hex allows a malicious package publisher to delete a directory outside the project's deps directory and extract package files into it when a developer fetches dependencies. A package release's requirements carry an app label that names the dependency's OTP application. Hex takes this label from the repository's signed registry and uses it as the dependency's application name without validating it (Hex.RemoteConverger.deps/2, Hex.Mix.to_lock/1). Mix derives the dependency's checkout directory as deps/<app>, and Hex.SCM.update/1 runs File.rm_rf!/1 on that directory and unpacks the package into it. hex.pm only checks the label's length, so a publisher can set it to a value such as ../../target. When a project depends on such a release directly or transitively, mix deps.get or mix deps.update deletes the directory the label resolves to and writes the labelled package's files there. This happens before any dependency code is compiled. This issue affects hex: from 0.6.0 before 2.5.2.

Affected products

Version statuses are supplied by the assigning organization. Consult the original record for detailed ranges and platform conditions.

hexpm hex

Default version status: unaffected

  • 0.6.0 to < 2.5.2affected
pkg:otp/hex?repository_url=https:%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fhexpm%2Fhex&vcs_url=repository_url=git%2Bhttps:%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fhexpm%2Fhex.git

hexpm hex

Default version status: unaffected

  • 380f87054e1bc08ee13d2b5311bc01f98dad2fc6 to < *affected
pkg:github/hexpm/hex

References