CVE-2026-39942: Directus has a Path Traversal and Broken Access Control in File Management API

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-04-09 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-284

Description

Directus is a real-time API and App dashboard for managing SQL database content. Prior to 11.17.0, the PATCH /files/{id} endpoint accepts a user-controlled filename_disk parameter. By setting this value to match the storage path of another user's file, an attacker can overwrite that file's content while manipulating metadata fields such as uploaded_by to obscure the tampering. This vulnerability is fixed in 11.17.0.

Affected products

directus: before 11.17.0 — fixed in 11.17.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: directus 11.17.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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