# CVE-2026-103663: Path Traversal leading to Remote Code Execution in Ollama

> Unauthenticated attackers can exploit path traversal in the pull endpoint to write malicious binaries, leading to remote code execution as root on restart.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.9 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 8 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 8 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-w8p2-phwr-px3r

## What is CVE-2026-103663?

CVE-2026-103663 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Ollama, published on 8 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Ollama is vulnerable to path traversal in the `/api/pull` endpoint due to insufficient validation of layer digests by the `digestToPath` function. An unauthenticated remote attacker can specify a path traversal sequence as a layer digest, causing a malicious binary to be written outside the model store. 

Critically if the server process has write access to `/usr/lib/ollama` (the default in most Ollama Docker images), an attacker can write the malicious file to that directory. On the next server restart, the file is loaded and executed, resulting in remote code execution as root.

This issue was fixed in version 0.35.0.

Weakness: CWE-913 (Improper Control of Dynamically-Managed Code Resources), CWE-23 (Relative Path Traversal)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-103663?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-103663?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-103663 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-103663 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-103663 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- https://github.com/striga-ai/CVE-2026-103663 (github_poc): https://github.com/striga-ai/CVE-2026-103663

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-103663 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-103663 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Ollama, published on 8 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-103663 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Ollama. 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-2026-103663/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-103663/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-103663
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-103663
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-103663

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-103663/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.