C++ HTTP Server has Critical Path Traversal Vulnerability in RequestHandler Allowing Arbitrary File Read

Summary

C++ HTTP Server is an HTTP/1.1 server built to handle client connections and serve HTTP requests. Versions 1.0 and below are vulnerable to Path Traversal via the RequestHandler::handleRequest method. This flaw allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to read arbitrary files from the server's filesystem by crafting a malicious HTTP GET request containing ../ sequences. The application fails to sanitize the filename variable derived from the user-controlled URL path, directly concatenating it to the files_directory base path and enabling traversal outside the intended root. No patch was available at the time of publication.