Summary
uv vulnerable to arbitrary file deletion through RECORD entries
Workarounds
Users are advised to upgrade to 0.11.6 or newer to address this advisory.
Users should experience no breaking changes as a result of the patch above.
Impact
Wheel RECORD entries can contain relative paths that traverse outside of the wheel’s installation prefix. In versions 0.11.5 and earlier of uv, these wheels were not rejected on installation and the RECORD was respected without validation on uninstall.
uv uses the RECORD to determine files to remove on uninstall. Consequently, a malicious or malformed wheel could induce deletion of arbitrary files outside of the wheel’s installation prefix on uninstall.
uv does not use the RECORD file to determine wheel file paths. Invalid RECORD entries cannot be used to create or modify files in arbitrary locations.
Standards-compliant Python packaging tooling does not produce RECORD files that exhibit this behavior; an attacker must manually manipulate the RECORD. A user must install and uninstall the malformed wheel to be affected. An attack must guess the depth of the installation prefix path in order to target system files.
Absolute paths in RECORD files are not allowed by the specification and, when present, uv always treats them as rooted in the wheel’s installation prefix. Absolute paths cannot be used to delete arbitrary files.
Only files can be deleted, attempts to delete a directory via an invalid RECORD entry will fail.
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.
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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Versions 0.11.6 and newer of uv address the validation gap above, by removing invalid entries from RECORD files on wheel installation and ignoring RECORD paths that would escape the installation prefix on uninstall.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is GHSA-PJJW-68HJ-V9MW? GHSA-PJJW-68HJ-V9MW is a low-severity path traversal vulnerability in uv (pip), affecting versions <= 0.11.5. It is fixed in 0.11.6. Input manipulates file paths to reach files outside the intended directory, such as configuration or credential files.
- Which versions of uv are affected by GHSA-PJJW-68HJ-V9MW? uv (pip) versions <= 0.11.5 is affected.
- Is there a fix for GHSA-PJJW-68HJ-V9MW? Yes. GHSA-PJJW-68HJ-V9MW is fixed in 0.11.6. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is GHSA-PJJW-68HJ-V9MW exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether GHSA-PJJW-68HJ-V9MW 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 GHSA-PJJW-68HJ-V9MW 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 GHSA-PJJW-68HJ-V9MW? Upgrade
uvto 0.11.6 or later.