Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAttacker controls or compromises source remote
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DeliveryServe crafted object names with ../ sequences
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ExploitVictim runs rclone sync from remote
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Executionrclone fails to confine names to directory
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ImpactAttempted write outside destination root (blocked by local backend)
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 | Requires the victim to run rclone (before 1.75.1) transferring data FROM a remote or third-party server that the attacker controls or has compromised, such that the attacker can dictate object names returned in directory-listing responses. The attacker must craft names embedding forward slashes and '../' parent references to attempt escape from the destination root. Exploitation is strongly limited: it depends on user interaction (running the transfer, UI:P), a specific attacker-controlled-source precondition (AT:P), and high complexity (AC:H); moreover, the local backend's existing downstream protections currently block actual file escape, so a successful write outside the destination root is not presently demonstrated against the default local backend. |
| Impact | This is a low-priority, defense-in-depth hardening fix rather than an actionable threat. The vendor CVSS 4.0 score is only 2.3 (LOW) with vector AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P and impact limited to VI:L (integrity-low) - no confidentiality or availability impact. Critically, the description itself states that 'downstream protections in the local backend currently block actual file escape,' meaning the primary exploitable consequence (writing outside the destination root) is already mitigated in practice; this CVE fixes the traversal at the name-confinement layer as an additional barrier. There is no EPSS score, no CISA KEV listing, and no public exploit code identified at time of analysis - no public exploit identified at time of analysis. The signals are internally consistent: high attack complexity (AC:H), a required attack condition (AT:P), and required user interaction (UI:P) all point to a scenario that is hard to trigger and low-impact even if triggered. This is a high-quality upstream hardening advisory (VulnCheck + GHSA), not a widespread-exploitation concern. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker who controls or has compromised a cloud storage remote (or a third-party server whose listing responses rclone consumes) returns object names containing embedded forward slashes and '../' parent-directory references. When a victim runs rclone to sync or copy from that malicious remote to a local destination, rclone fails to confine those names to the listed directory and attempts to write them outside the destination root. In current versions the local backend's downstream checks block the actual file escape, so this is presently a defense-in-depth gap rather than a working write-outside-root primitive; no public exploit code is identified. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 19, 2026
Path traversal in rclone before 1.75.1 allows object names returned in server or third-party directory-listing responses to contain forward slashes and '../' parent-directory references that are not confined to the listed directory, so a malicious or compromised source can attempt to steer writes outside the transfer destination root. Exploitation requires the victim to run rclone against an attacker-influenced remote (attacker-controlled source), user interaction to initiate the transfer, and high attack complexity; the local backend's existing downstream protections currently block actual file escape on the default local backend, keeping real-world impact limited. Rated only 2.3 (CVSS 4.0) and assessed as CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N, this is a low-priority defense-in-depth hardening issue rather than an actionable threat, and no public exploit code was identified at time of analysis (no CISA KEV listing).
RemediationAI
Upgrade rclone to version 1.75.1 or later, which is the vendor-released fix that confines remote-supplied listing names to the listed directory; the release and technical details are documented in the GitHub advisory at https://github.com/rclone/rclone/security/advisories/GHSA-3vxh-3pcx-9m8q and the corroborating VulnCheck advisory at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/rclone-before-1.75.1-path-traversal-via-directory-listing-names. Because exploitation requires the victim to transfer data from a remote the attacker controls or has compromised, a practical compensating control is to treat source remotes as trusted-only and avoid running rclone copy/sync from attacker-influenceable or third-party endpoints until patched, at the cost of reduced flexibility for shared or multi-tenant storage. Additional hardening with accepted trade-offs: run transfers with --dry-run or -i/--interactive first to inspect the object names rclone intends to write (adds review overhead and is not a permanent fix), execute rclone as a low-privileged, sandboxed user with write access restricted to the intended destination directory so any residual traversal cannot reach sensitive paths (may break workflows that legitimately write elsewhere), and mount or expose the destination read-only or via a staging directory that is manually reviewed before promotion. Note that rclone's local backend protections currently block actual file escape on the default local backend, so these measures are defense-in-depth rather than response to a demonstrated active exploit; no public exploit code and no CISA KEV entry were identified at time of analysis.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
rclone is a Go-based command-line utility for synchronizing and copying data across cloud storage backends (S3, Google Drive, SFTP, WebDAV and many others) as well as a local filesystem backend. Object names in these systems are frequently treated as flat strings, but rclone maps them onto a path hierarchy, so names supplied by a remote listing (a server or third-party that answers the list operation) are the untrusted input here. The root cause class is CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory, i.e. path traversal): names returned in listing responses are not sanitized/confined to the listed directory before being used to construct destination paths, allowing an attacker who controls the source names to embed forward slashes and '../' sequences that could resolve above the destination root. Version data (CPE cpe:2.3:a:rclone:rclone:* with a wildcard version) indicates all releases prior to 1.75.1 are affected. The fix belongs to input-validation/hardening code that normalizes and confines remote-supplied names; importantly, the local backend already performs defensive checks that currently prevent the crafted names from resolving outside the destination, so the vulnerability is latent unless/until those downstream protections are bypassed or a different backend lacks them.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Network-delivered via malicious remote listing but requires attacker-controlled source and victim-initiated transfer (AC:H, UI:R); integrity-only I:L since actual file escape is currently blocked, no confidentiality or availability impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
rclone before 1.75.1 fails to confine names from server and third-party listing responses to the listed directory, allowing path traversal sequences in object names. Attackers can craft special names containing forward slashes and parent directory references to potentially write outside the destination root, though downstream protections in the local backend currently block actual file escape.
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.
Authentication bypass in rclone's S3 server mode (rclone serve s3) allows any unauthenticated network attacker to impers
PowerShell smart-quote filename injection in rclone's SFTP backend allows an attacker who controls remote filenames to e
An issue was discovered in Rclone before 1.53.3. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploita
Cross-session credential isolation failure in rclone's FTP auth-proxy driver (versions 1.64.0-1.75.0) allows an authenti
Symlink escape in rclone's local backend (prior to v1.75.1) allows an attacker who controls sync source contents to appl
FTP CRLF injection in rclone before 1.75.0 allows an attacker who can place crafted filenames in a source namespace to i
Path traversal (Zip Slip class) in rclone's archive ZIP backend permits arbitrary file writes outside the intended desti
Denial of service in rclone prior to 1.75.1 allows unauthenticated remote attackers to crash individual HTTP or WebDAV c
Path traversal in rclone prior to 1.75.1 allows an attacker who can populate a source object store with raw `..` key seg
Cleartext disclosure of AWS STS session tokens affects rclone before 1.74.4 when its S3 backend follows a redirect that
Authentication/authorization bypass in rclone's dynamic serve interface (versions 1.70.0 through 1.75.0) lets remote att
Path traversal in the `rclone serve restic --private-repos` REST server (versions prior to 1.74.4) allows an authenticat
EUVD-2026-83591
GHSA-9g4r-fhf6-vc4c
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB