Summary
Workarounds
Users can safeguard existing applications by disabling STAC collection based resources in their pygeoapi config, until 0.23.3 can be installed and deployed.
Impact
A raw string path concatenation vulnerability in pygeoapi's STAC FileSystemProvider plugin can allow for requests to STAC collection based collections to expose directories without authentication. The issue manifests when pygeoapi is deployed without a proxy or web front end that would normalize URLs with .. values, along with a resource of type stac-collection defined in configuration.
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-2026-42351 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). 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 (0.23.3); 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.
Remediation advice
The issue has been patched in master branch and made available as part of the 0.23.3 release.
The commit/fix can be found in bf25b8695edbdd5476eeffc102b633d1d3e45f52.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2026-42351? CVE-2026-42351 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in pygeoapi (pip), affecting versions >= 0.23.0, < 0.23.3. It is fixed in 0.23.3. Input manipulates file paths to reach files outside the intended directory, such as configuration or credential files.
- How severe is CVE-2026-42351? CVE-2026-42351 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). 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 pygeoapi are affected by CVE-2026-42351? pygeoapi (pip) versions >= 0.23.0, < 0.23.3 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-42351? Yes. CVE-2026-42351 is fixed in 0.23.3. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2026-42351 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2026-42351 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-2026-42351 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-2026-42351? Upgrade
pygeoapito 0.23.3 or later.