Executive brief
IBM compliance-trestle is a library used to manage and automate compliance documentation. A security flaw in how it handles file imports allows an attacker to trick the system into reading sensitive files from the server, such as passwords or private keys. This occurs when a user is persuaded to import a specially crafted compliance profile.
Technical details
A path traversal vulnerability exists in the profile import mechanism of compliance-trestle. The `LocalFetcher` class in `trestle/core/remote/cache.py` resolves `trestle://` URIs and relative paths using `pathlib.Path.resolve()` without verifying that the resulting path remains within the intended workspace boundary. An attacker can exploit this by providing a malicious OSCAL profile YAML containing traversal sequences (e.g., `../../`) in the `imports[].href` field. If a victim imports this profile, the attacker can read arbitrary files from the server's filesystem. The issue is fixed in versions 4.0.3 and 3.12.2 by implementing boundary checks using `is_relative_to()`.
Affected products
- IBM compliance-trestle >= 4.0.0, <= 4.0.2
- IBM compliance-trestle < 3.12.2
Timeline
- 2026-04-30: other: Vulnerability confirmed in v4.0.2
- 2026-05-27: patched: Fixes released in versions 4.0.3 and 3.12.2
- 2026-05-28: advisory