Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessHost malicious site with crafted download
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DeliveryVictim crawler fetches URL
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ExploitContent-Disposition/suggested filename carries traversal
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ExecutionSave escapes downloads directory
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PersistWrite attacker bytes to sensitive path
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ImpactCode executes as crawler user
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V5 - File Handling Path canonicalization, traversal prevention
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Discovery, Collection The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires that a Crawl4AI instance prior to 0.9.0 downloads and saves a file originating from attacker-controlled content - specifically the HTTP crawler path is triggered when the malicious server sets a crafted Content-Disposition filename (absolute path or ../ traversal), and the browser crawler path is triggered when a download's suggested filename is crafted; file-download handling must be exercised by the crawl. The primary limiting factor is user/pipeline interaction (CVSS UI:R): the victim must actually crawl the attacker-influenced URL or resource, so it is not autonomously exploitable against a passive host. No authentication is required against the victim (PR:N/unauthenticated on the crawler side), and no non-default feature toggle beyond normal download-saving behavior is needed; realistic impact depends on the privileges and filesystem confinement of the account running the crawler. |
| Impact | Signals are broadly consistent toward high priority but with one important caveat. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H = 9.6) reflects a remote, low-complexity, unauthenticated (PR:N) attack with scope change and full CIA impact via RCE - however the UI:R flag is the key limiter: exploitation is not fully autonomous, it requires the victim to crawl attacker-controlled content, so this is not a wormable server-side bug but a client/pipeline-side one triggered by processing malicious input. No EPSS score was provided and no SSVC decision data was supplied, so automatability cannot be quantified from the input; the vulnerability is not in CISA KEV and no POC is referenced, so there is no evidence of active or public exploitation yet. Net: a genuinely critical, easy-to-trigger flaw for anyone crawling untrusted URLs, but the real-world risk hinges on whether the deployment points Crawl4AI at attacker-controllable sites (which is precisely its intended use), making this a real priority for crawling/RAG operators rather than a hypothetical high-CVSS item. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker stands up (or compromises) a website that a target's Crawl4AI-based pipeline will crawl, and serves a file whose Content-Disposition header (HTTP path) or browser-suggested download name (browser path) contains a traversal/absolute path such as ../../../../home/app/.bashrc or a path into a Python site-packages module, with malicious contents. When the crawler downloads and saves the file, the bytes are written outside the downloads directory to an execution-relevant location, and code runs the next time that file is loaded or the process/user starts a shell. No public POC is referenced, but the low attack complexity makes exploitation straightforward once a victim crawls the malicious URL. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jul 06, 2026
Arbitrary file write in Crawl4AI (the open-source LLM-friendly web crawler by unclecode) before version 0.9.0 lets a malicious website or download control where crawled files land on disk, and because the file contents are also attacker-controlled this escalates to remote code execution. Both the HTTP crawler path (trusting the response Content-Disposition filename) and the browser crawler path (trusting the download's suggested filename) are affected. CVSS is 9.6 (Critical); no public exploit is identified at time of analysis and it is not listed in CISA KEV, but a fix commit and GHSA advisory are published.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade to Crawl4AI 0.9.0, which fixes the unsafe filename handling (see advisory GHSA-2jq4-q6vv-4cp3 and commit 60886d1a0c52682e4c83a7cef9dfac417fff6bd2). If you cannot upgrade immediately, only crawl trusted destinations and avoid running the crawler against untrusted or attacker-influenced sites, disable file-download handling in the crawler configuration where possible, and run the crawler under a low-privilege, sandboxed/containerized account whose write scope is confined (e.g. mount the downloads directory on a dedicated volume with no execute permission and no overlap with system or application paths) so a traversal write cannot reach startup scripts, web roots, or Python package directories; note these controls reduce functionality (no downloads) or add operational overhead (sandboxing) but do not fully close the flaw the way the 0.9.0 upgrade does. Advisory: https://github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai/security/advisories/GHSA-2jq4-q6vv-4cp3.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in pypi
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
Crawl4AI is a Python web crawling/scraping library commonly embedded in LLM and RAG data-ingestion pipelines to fetch and store web content. The root cause is CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory / path traversal): when saving a downloaded file, the destination filename is taken from attacker-influenced input and naively joined to the configured downloads directory with no confinement check (no normalization/prefix validation against the intended base path). A filename carrying an absolute path (e.g. /etc/... or a Windows path) or ../ traversal sequences therefore resolves outside the downloads directory. The two ingestion surfaces differ in source of the tainted name - the HTTP path derives it from the server's Content-Disposition header, and the browser (headless) path from the browser's suggested download filename - but both feed the same unsafe join, so writing attacker bytes to an arbitrary location (startup scripts, cron, web roots, Python site-packages, etc.) yields code execution. Affected CPE: cpe:2.3:a:unclecode:crawl4ai:*.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Remote attacker-controlled content with low complexity and no victim auth (PR:N) but requires the victim to crawl it (UI:R); arbitrary write outside the intended dir changes scope (S:C) and yields RCE, so C/I/A:H.
Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).
CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M
Lifecycle Timeline
1DescriptionCVE.org
Crawl4AI is an open-source LLM-friendly web crawler and scraper. Prior to 0.9.0, when the crawler saves a downloaded file, the destination filename was taken from attacker-influenced input and joined to the downloads directory with no confinement. A filename containing an absolute path or traversal escaped the downloads directory, giving an arbitrary file write with attacker-controlled contents; the HTTP crawler path uses the response Content-Disposition filename and the browser crawler path uses the download's suggested filename. Because the written bytes are attacker-controlled, this can escalate to remote code execution. This issue is fixed in version 0.9.0.
Executive ViewAI
Crawl4AI, an open-source LLM web crawler used by organizations for web data extraction, contains a critical remote code execution vulnerability affecting all versions before 0.9.0. Attackers can execute arbitrary code on systems running the crawler by hosting malicious websites or controlling download responses, potentially compromising entire systems that process untrusted web sources.
No public exploit identified at time of analysis; not listed in CISA KEV. No vendor-released patch identified at this time. Interim mitigations: Restrict Crawl4AI to whitelist of pre-approved, trusted domains; implement network segmentation isolating crawler systems from sensitive infrastructure; disable automatic file downloads or enforce strict filename validation; review and consider applying published fix commit from GHSA advisory as emergency mitigation prior to 0.9.0 release.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Path traversal exploits occur when applications use user-controlled input to construct file system paths without proper validation.
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
Remote code execution in Crawl4AI Docker API before 0.8.0 via hooks parameter. The /crawl endpoint accepts Python code i
Authentication bypass in Crawl4AI Docker API server (versions prior to 0.8.7) allows remote unauthenticated attackers to
Arbitrary local file disclosure in Crawl4AI's Docker API (versions before 0.8.0) lets unauthenticated remote attackers r
Remote code execution in Crawl4AI's Docker API server (versions prior to 0.9.0) lets unauthenticated attackers run arbit
Arbitrary file write in Crawl4AI Docker API server before 0.8.8 lets unauthenticated remote attackers escape the ALLOWED
Arbitrary JavaScript execution in Crawl4AI's Docker API server (versions before 0.8.7) lets remote attackers submit code
Server-side request forgery in Crawl4AI's Docker API server (versions before 0.8.7) allows remote unauthenticated attack
Server-side request forgery in Crawl4AI (unclecode) versions 0.7.0 through 0.9.3 lets unauthenticated, remote API client
Server-side request forgery in Crawl4AI before 0.8.7 allows unauthenticated remote attackers to coerce the server into f
Crawl4AI <=0.4.247 is vulnerable to SSRF in /crawl4ai/async_dispatcher.py. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vuln
Arbitrary file write in Crawl4AI's Docker API server (versions before 0.8.7) lets remote unauthenticated attackers overw
Credential exfiltration in Crawl4AI's Docker API server (all versions before 0.8.8) lets remote unauthenticated attacker
EUVD-2026-41934
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
GitHub
Exploit-DB