# CVE-2025-53358: kotaemon Vulnerable to Path Traversal via Link Upload

> Attackers can traverse directories to exfiltrate sensitive files via unvalidated local file paths in the document upload feature.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 2 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 2 Jul 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jw4w-xcvf-jq5x

## What is CVE-2025-53358?

CVE-2025-53358 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Cinnamon kotaemon, published on 2 Jul 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

kotaemon is an open-source RAG-based tool for document comprehension. From versions 0.10.6 and prior, in libs/ktem/ktem/index/file/ui.py, the index_fn method accepts both URLs and local file paths without validation. The pipeline streams these paths directly and stores them, enabling attackers to traverse directories (e.g. ../../../../../.env) and exfiltrate sensitive files. This issue has been patched via commit 37cdc28, in version 0.10.7 which has not been made public at time of publication.

Weakness: CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-53358?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-53358?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-53358 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-53358 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-53358 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-53358 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-53358 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Cinnamon kotaemon, published on 2 Jul 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-53358 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cinnamon kotaemon. 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-2025-53358/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-53358/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-53358
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-53358
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-53358

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-53358/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.