VulnerabilityPublished 27 Mar 2026

CVE-2026-29871: Path Traversal

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

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

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 47% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

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

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: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Mar 2026
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 26 Oct 2026.

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 or the CVSS exploit maturity 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

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2026-29871, organizations should immediately audit and sanitize all user-supplied input used in filesystem path construction. Specifically, implement strict validation to disallow directory traversal sequences such as '../' or absolute paths. Employ secure coding practices such as using safe path joining functions that restrict access to a predefined directory (e.g., Python's pathlib with resolve and strict checks). If possible, apply access controls at the filesystem level to limit the backend process's permissions to only necessary directories. Monitor and log access to the stream-audio endpoint for unusual or suspicious requests. Until an official patch is released, consider temporarily disabling or restricting access to the vulnerable endpoint. Conduct thorough code reviews and penetration testing to identify similar vulnerabilities elsewhere in the codebase. Additionally, keep the software dependencies and frameworks up to date and subscribe to security advisories related to the awesome-llm-apps project. Finally, implement network-level protections such as web application firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block path traversal attempts targeting this endpoint.

Description

A path traversal vulnerability exists in the awesome-llm-apps project in commit e46690f99c3f08be80a9877fab52acacf7ab8251 (2026-01-19) in the Beifong AI News and Podcast Agent backend in FastAPI backend, stream-audio endpoint, in file routers/podcast_router.py, in function stream_audio. The stream-audio endpoint accepts a user-controlled path parameter that is concatenated into a filesystem path without proper validation or restriction. An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to read arbitrary files from the server filesystem, potentially disclosing sensitive information such as configuration files and credentials.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2026-29871 is the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information from affected servers. Attackers exploiting this vulnerability can read arbitrary files, potentially gaining access to configuration files, credentials, API keys, or other sensitive data that could facilitate further attacks such as privilege escalation, lateral movement, or data exfiltration. This compromises the confidentiality of the affected systems and can lead to significant operational and reputational damage. Since the vulnerability requires no authentication and no user interaction, it can be exploited remotely by any attacker with network access to the vulnerable endpoint, increasing the attack surface. Organizations relying on the awesome-llm-apps project or the Beifong AI News and Podcast Agent backend are at risk, especially if these systems handle sensitive or regulated data. The exposure of credentials or configuration details could also enable attackers to pivot into internal networks or cloud environments, amplifying the impact. Although availability and integrity are not directly affected, the breach of confidentiality alone warrants 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

github.com/lilmingwa13/security-research/blob/main/CVE-2026-29871.md (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Mar 2026, 15:31 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-22

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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