Relative Path Traversal Attack on note creation
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Information disclosure
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · None · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-22 and the CVSS impact.
Summary
HedgeDoc (formerly known as CodiMD) is an open-source collaborative markdown editor. An attacker can read arbitrary `.md` files from the server's filesystem due to an improper input validation, which results in the ability to perform a relative path traversal. To verify if you are affected, you can try to open the following URL: `http://localhost:3000/..%2F..%2FREADME#` (replace `http://localhost:3000` with your instance's base-URL e.g. `https://demo.hedgedoc.org/..%2F..%2FREADME#`). If you see a README page being rendered, you run an affected version. The attack works due the fact that the internal router passes the url-encoded alias to the `noteController.showNote`-function. This function passes the input directly to findNote() utility function, that will pass it on the the parseNoteId()-function, that tries to make sense out of the noteId/alias and check if a note already exists and if so, if a corresponding file on disk was updated. If no note exists the note creation-function is called, which pass this unvalidated alias, with a `.md` appended, into a path.join()-function which is read from the filesystem in the follow up routine and provides the pre-filled content of the new note. This allows an attacker to not only read arbitrary `.md` files from the filesystem, but also observes changes to them. The usefulness of this attack can be considered limited, since mainly markdown files are use the file-ending `.md` and all markdown files contained in the hedgedoc project, like the README, are public anyway. If other protections such as a chroot or container or proper file permissions are in place, this attack's usefulness is rather limited. On a reverse-proxy level one can force a URL-decode, which will prevent this attack because the router will not accept such a path.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA hedgedoc (hedgedoc) Fixed in 1.8.0
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-29474
References
More Hedgedoc vulnerabilities
- TI-2023-19867 HedgeDoc API allows to hide existing notes CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.2
- TI-2024-30379 MySQL & free URL mode allows to hide existing notes in hedgedoc CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
- TI-2021-10188 PDF export allows arbitrary file reads CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 10.0
- TI-2020-16108 Stored XSS in mermaid diagrams CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.7
- TI-2021-10211 Improper Neutralization of Script-Related HTML Tags in Notes CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.1
- TI-2021-16561 XSS vector in slide mode speaker-view CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.1
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences