Summary
Path Traversal in django-s3file
Workarounds
There is no feasible workaround. We must urge all users to immediately updated to a patched version.
Detailed attack vector description
An attacker may use a request with malicious form data to traverse the entire AWS S3 bucket and perform destructive operations.
An attack could look as follows:
curl -X POST -F "s3file=file" -F "file=/priviliged/location/secrets.txt" https://www.example.com/any/path/will/work/
This will result in a request with files set and opened:
>>> request.FILES.getlist("file")
[File("/priviliged/location/secrets.txt")]
Since this behavior is injected via a middleware, any view can be called this way and will carry any files defined by the attacker.
Via the s3file form field, any input name can be specified, including multiple inputs. For each input, multiple files can be freely
picked of the S3 bucket.
Scenarios and their practicality
There are four scenarios that would be considered practical in most setups:
- Illegal file injection,
- file deletion,
- file retrieval & tree traversal.
- code injection & remote code execution.
File deletion
An attacker knows the location of a privileged file, like a static asset. Next, the file is injected into a form view. The upload to function will move the file to a new location. This is effectively deleting the file, since the previous references to it are invalid, and will cause S3 to return a 404. Furthermore, the new location is unknown to the site operator.
File retrieval & tree traversal
An attacker knows the URL of a secret file and injects it into a form view. The view will move the file to a public location, making it accessible to the attacker. Since most form views will not be rate limited, this could also be used to guess files and traverse the file tree.
Illegal file injection
An attacker uses any form to upload a file to the temporary upload location. Next, the attacker injects that file into a request, does not validate the contents or is not equipped to handle the mime type. The latter could be used as a potential DOS vector.
In practice, this is not a practical risk in most hardened setup. Files should always be sanitized before processing, since files can be included in a request even without this security issues.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Open an issue on GitHub
- Email us at [email protected]
Impact
It was possible to traverse the entire AWS S3 bucket and in most cases to access or delete files.
The issue was discovered by the maintainer. There were no reports of the vulnerability
being known to or exploited by a third party, before the release of the patch.
If the AWS_LOCATION setting was set, traversal was limited to that location only.
If all your files handling views (like form views) require authentication or special permission, the thread is limited to privileged users.
Input manipulates file paths to reach files outside the intended directory, such as configuration or credential files. Typical impact: unauthorized file read or write outside the intended directory.
CVE-2022-24840 has a CVSS score of 9.1 (Critical). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (5.5.1); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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The vulnerability has been fixed in version 5.5.1 and above.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2022-24840? CVE-2022-24840 is a critical-severity path traversal vulnerability in django-s3file (pip), affecting versions < 5.5.1. It is fixed in 5.5.1. Input manipulates file paths to reach files outside the intended directory, such as configuration or credential files.
- How severe is CVE-2022-24840? CVE-2022-24840 has a CVSS score of 9.1 (Critical). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of django-s3file are affected by CVE-2022-24840? django-s3file (pip) versions < 5.5.1 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2022-24840? Yes. CVE-2022-24840 is fixed in 5.5.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2022-24840 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-24840 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2022-24840 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2022-24840? Upgrade
django-s3fileto 5.5.1 or later.