CVE-2026-40491 | gdown Affected by Arbitrary File Write via Path Traversal in gdown.extractall

Exp

gdown is a Google Drive public file/folder downloader. Versions prior to 5.2.2 are vulnerable to a Path Traversal attack within the extractall functionality. When extracting a maliciously crafted ZIP or TAR archive, the library fails to sanitize or validate the filenames of the archive members. This allow files to be written outside the intended destination directory, potentially leading to arbitrary file overwrite and Remote Code Execution (RCE). Version 5.2.2 contains a fix.

Published: 2026-04-18 Last update: 2026-05-01 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-40491 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.05%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-40491

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-40491

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-02 0.05% 0.05% +0.00%
2 2026-04-18 — 0.05% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-40491

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-40491

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-40491

GHSA-76hw-p97h-883f · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — gdown Affected by Arbitrary File Write via Path Traversal in gdown.extractall

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-40491

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-40491 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (gdown), 3 status rows across 3 suites (forky, sid, trixie): resolved 2, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-40491
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-40491 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (gdown), 5 status rows across 5 suites (jammy, noble, questing, resolute, upstream): needs-triage 3, DNE 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-40491

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-40491

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
wkentaro gdown < 5.2.2 cpe:2.3:a:wkentaro:gdown:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-40491

cvelogic Threat Intelligence