# CVE-2017-9538: Path traversal in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a permanent denial of service in SolarWinds NPM by exploiting a flawed directory traversal protection mechanism in the logo upload feature.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.9 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 2 Oct 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-hwf6-mrmq-vv3x

## What is CVE-2017-9538?

CVE-2017-9538 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in n/a, published on 2 Oct 2017. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The 'Upload logo from external path' function of SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor version 12.0.15300.90 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (permanent display of a "Cannot exit above the top directory" error message throughout the entire web application) via a ".." in the path field. In other words, the denial of service is caused by an incorrect implementation of a directory-traversal protection mechanism.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-9538?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-9538?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-9538 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-9538 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-9538 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2021-31474](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-31474/): Deserialization in Network Performance Monitor (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-27869](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-27869/): SQL injection in Network Performance Monitor (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2018-13442](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-13442/): SQL injection in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2021-35225](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-35225/): Netpath Horizontal Privilege Escalation Vulnerability: NPM 2020.2.5 (medium 5.0)
- [CVE-2017-9537](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9537/): Cross-site scripting in n/a (medium 4.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-9538 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-9538 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in n/a, published on 2 Oct 2017. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-9538 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9538/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9538/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-9538
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-9538
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-9538

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9538/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.