CVE-2024-5980VulnerabilityPublished 27 Jun 2024Updated 21 Oct 2025

CVE-2024-5980: lightning-ai/pytorch-lightning · Path Traversal

Affects lightning-ai/pytorch-lightningSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.1 Critical.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.0 base score

9.1Critical

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 1.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 70% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Jun 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
PyPIpytorch-lightning`pkg:pypi/pytorch-lightning`Other threats	Affected =2.2.4	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

1. Immediately monitor official lightning-ai channels for patches or updates addressing CVE-2024-5980 and apply them as soon as they become available. 2. Until patched, disable the plugin_server feature or restrict its usage to trusted internal environments only. 3. Implement strict validation and sanitization of all plugin archives before deployment, including scanning for path traversal sequences and verifying archive contents against expected directory structures. 4. Employ network segmentation and firewall rules to limit access to the /v1/runs API endpoint to authorized users and systems only. 5. Use runtime application self-protection (RASP) or host-based intrusion detection systems (HIDS) to detect anomalous file writes or execution attempts. 6. Enforce least privilege principles on the file system permissions for the LightningApp process to minimize the impact of arbitrary file writes. 7. Conduct regular security audits and penetration tests focusing on plugin deployment mechanisms. 8. Educate development and DevOps teams about the risks of accepting untrusted plugins and the importance of secure plugin management.

Description

A vulnerability in the /v1/runs API endpoint of lightning-ai/pytorch-lightning v2.2.4 allows attackers to exploit path traversal when extracting tar.gz files. When the LightningApp is running with the plugin_server, attackers can deploy malicious tar.gz plugins that embed arbitrary files with path traversal vulnerabilities. This can result in arbitrary files being written to any directory in the victim's local file system, potentially leading to remote code execution.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability can lead to severe consequences including unauthorized modification or destruction of critical files, insertion of backdoors, and full system compromise. AI research institutions, cloud service providers, and enterprises using lightning-ai/pytorch-lightning for machine learning workflows may face disruption of services, data breaches, and intellectual property theft. The ability to execute arbitrary code remotely without authentication increases the risk of widespread exploitation, potentially affecting supply chains and AI model integrity. Given the increasing reliance on AI frameworks in Europe’s digital economy and research sectors, exploitation could undermine trust in AI deployments and cause regulatory compliance issues under GDPR if personal data is compromised. Additionally, organizations in critical infrastructure sectors leveraging AI could face operational outages or sabotage. The absence of known exploits currently provides a window for proactive defense, but the high severity demands urgent attention.

CWE-22Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #6OWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.
Implementation · Input Validation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
Architecture and Design
For any security checks that are performed on the client side, ensure that these checks are duplicated on the server side, in order to avoid CWE-602. Attackers can bypass the client-side checks by modifying values after the checks have been performed, or by changing the client to remove the client-side checks…
Implementation · Input Validation
Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174).
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Path Traversal (opens in a new tab)
Using Slashes and URL Encoding Combined to Bypass Validation Logic (opens in a new tab)
Manipulating Web Input to File System Calls (opens in a new tab)
Using Escaped Slashes in Alternate Encoding (opens in a new tab)
Using Slashes in Alternate Encoding (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 22 Oct 2025, 13:40 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-22

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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