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Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

CVE-2021-32662

Medium
6.5/10

Summary

Backstage is an open platform for building developer portals, and techdocs-common contains common functionalities for Backstage's TechDocs. In `@backstage/techdocs-common` versions prior to 0.6.3, a malicious actor could read sensitive files from the environment where TechDocs documentation is built and published by setting a particular path for `docs_dir` in `mkdocs.yml`. These files would then be available over the TechDocs backend API. This vulnerability is mitigated by the fact that an attacker would need access to modify the `mkdocs.yml` in the documentation source code, and would also need access to the TechDocs backend API. The vulnerability is patched in the `0.6.3` release of `@backstage/techdocs-common`.

  • LOW
  • NETWORK
  • NONE
  • UNCHANGED
  • NONE
  • LOW
  • HIGH
  • NONE

CWE-22 - Path Traversal

Path traversal (or directory traversal), is a vulnerability that allows malicious users to traverse the server's root directory, gaining access to arbitrary files and folders such as application code & data, back-end credentials, and sensitive operating system files. In the worst-case scenario, an attacker could potentially execute arbitrary files on the server, resulting in a denial of service attack. Such an exploit may severely impact the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of an application.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published