Executive brief
Gradio, a popular Python library for building machine learning web interfaces, contains a security flaw in its FileExplorer component. An attacker can bypass directory restrictions to access and read sensitive files on the host server that they should not be able to see. This could lead to the exposure of private data, configuration files, or system credentials.
Technical details
A path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) exists in Gradio's FileExplorer component due to insecure path handling in the preprocess() method. The component used os.path.join() and os.path.normpath() on user-supplied path segments without sufficient validation. Because os.path.join() discards previous path components if an absolute path is encountered, and directory traversal sequences (../) were not filtered, an unauthenticated remote attacker could supply crafted inputs to escape the 'root_dir' restriction. This allows for arbitrary file read on the host system. The issue was resolved in version 6.16.0 by routing path processing through the _safe_join helper, which correctly validates that resolved paths remain within the intended directory.
Affected products
- gradio-app gradio < 6.16.0
Timeline
- 2026-05-29: patched: Fix PR submitted to gradio-app/gradio repository
- 2026-06-03: advisory: Release 6.16.0 published with security fix
- 2026-07-01: disclosed: CVE-2026-49119 published to NVD