Description

CAI Content Credentials is affected by an Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability that could result in a Arbitrary file system read. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to gain unauthorized read access to files or directories outside the intended restrictions. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction. Scope is changed.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.1",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-11T17:18:01.450Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-11T17:18:01.450Z",
  "executiveSummary": "An Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory vulnerability, commonly known as Path Traversal, affects CAI Content Credentials. This security flaw enables unauthorized arbitrary file system read operations, granting attackers unauthorized read access to sensitive files and directories residing outside the intended security boundaries. The affected product is CAI Content Credentials. The risk implications are severe, as unauthorized exposure of system files, configuration data, or private user assets can lead to severe confidentiality breaches and further compromise of the underlying host environment. An attacker can execute this exploit remotely without requiring any form of user interaction. Furthermore, the security scope is explicitly changed, indicating that the vulnerability impacts resources beyond the immediate security context of the vulnerable component. Successful exploitation hinges on the application's failure to adequately sanitize and validate user-supplied path inputs before performing file system operations, allowing malicious input sequences to traverse the directory hierarchy and access restricted system assets.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of the vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and improper restriction of pathnames to a restricted directory within CAI Content Credentials. Specifically, the vulnerable component fails to adequately sanitize path inputs containing directory traversal sequences, such as dot-dot-slash patterns, enabling attackers to break out of the intended web root or operational directory. The exploitation method relies on supplying specially crafted path traversal payloads directly to the vulnerable input vector, allowing navigation across the file system hierarchy. Attack flow occurs when an unauthenticated attacker submits a malicious request containing traversal sequences to the application. Without requiring any privilege level, user interaction, or complex authentication mechanisms, the application processes the tainted path and interacts with the underlying operating system's file system API. The payload behavior forces the application to resolve the manipulated path and return the contents of files located outside the restricted directory. Post-exploitation impact includes arbitrary file system read capabilities, exposing sensitive system configurations, application source code, or private user data depending on the read privileges of the process executing CAI Content Credentials. Network exposure is present since the vulnerability can be leveraged remotely to compromise file confidentiality."
}