{"answers":{"affected":"3 open source packages ship an affected version, including excel-mcp-server.","exploited":"It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-40576 exists.","fix":"Upgrade excel-mcp-server to 0.1.8 or later.","what":"CVE-2026-40576 is a critical path traversal vulnerability in haris-musa excel-mcp-server, published on 21 Apr 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim."},"fix_prompt":"Check this codebase for CVE-2026-40576 and fix it if it is affected.\n\nWhat it is: CVE-2026-40576 is a critical path traversal vulnerability in haris-musa excel-mcp-server, published on 21 Apr 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.\nExploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-40576 exists.\n\nAffected packages and fixed versions:\n- excel-mcp-server (PyPI): affected all versions; fixed in 0.1.8\n- excel-mcp-server (PyPI): affected all versions; fixed in 0.1.8\n- excel-mcp-server (PyPI): affected all versions; fixed in 0.1.8\n\nTask:\n1. 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.\n2. 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.\n3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.\n4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.\n5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.\n\nReference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-40576/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-40576/index.md)","id":"CVE-2026-40576","markdown":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-40576/index.md","name":"CVE-2026-40576","record":{"aliases":["GHSA-j98m-w3xp-9f56","PYSEC-2026-331"],"analysis":{"component_type":"server_software","fix_type":"upgrade","impacts":["data_read","data_modify"],"network_reachable":"yes","non_default_config":false,"product_category":"Excel MCP server","requires_auth":"none","summary":"Unauthenticated attackers can read, write, or overwrite arbitrary files on the host via path traversal in the Excel MCP server's remote transport mode.","user_interaction":"not_required","vuln_class":"path_traversal"},"analysis_generated_by":"qwen3.8-flash-next","assigner":"GitHub_M","cpe":[],"cvss":{"score":9.4,"severity":"critical","source":"cna","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:H","version":"3.1"},"cwes":[{"id":"CWE-22","name":"Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory"}],"description":"excel-mcp-server is a Model Context Protocol server for Excel file manipulation. A path traversal vulnerability exists in excel-mcp-server versions up to and including 0.1.7. When running in SSE or Streamable-HTTP transport mode (the documented way to use this server remotely), an unauthenticated attacker on the network can read, write, and overwrite arbitrary files on the host filesystem by supplying crafted filepath arguments to any of the 25 exposed MCP tool handlers. The server is intended to confine file operations to a directory set by the EXCEL_FILES_PATH environment variable. The function responsible for enforcing this boundary — get_excel_path() — fails to do so due to two independent flaws: it passes absolute paths through without any check, and it joins relative paths without resolving or validating the result. Combined with zero authentication on the default network-facing transport and a default bind address of 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces), this allows trivial remote exploitation. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.1.8.","ecosystems":["PyPI"],"exploits":{"exploitdb":0,"first_seen":null,"github_poc":0,"max_poc_stars":null,"metasploit":0,"nuclei":0,"refs":[],"tier":"weaponised"},"has_fix":true,"headline":"Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') in excel-mcp-server","id":"CVE-2026-40576","indexable":true,"kev":null,"kind":"cve","links":{"ecosystem":"PyPI","product":null,"products":[],"type":"path_traversal","year":"2026"},"n_packages":3,"n_references":1,"next":{"headline":"ChurchCRM: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in SelectDelete.php Leading to Permanent Data Deletion","id":"CVE-2026-40581"},"packages":[{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["0.1.8"],"introduced":["0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"excel-mcp-server","purl":null,"source":"GHSA-j98m-w3xp-9f56"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["0.1.8"],"introduced":["0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"excel-mcp-server","purl":"pkg:pypi/excel-mcp-server","source":"GHSA-j98m-w3xp-9f56"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["0.1.8"],"introduced":["0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"excel-mcp-server","purl":"pkg:pypi/excel-mcp-server","source":"PYSEC-2026-331"}],"prev":{"headline":"OAuth2 Proxy has an Authentication Bypass via X-Forwarded-Uri Header Spoofing","id":"CVE-2026-40575"},"products":["excel-mcp-server"],"published":"2026-04-21","related":[],"sources":[{"class":"attribution","licence":"CVE Terms of Use (MITRE)","name":"CVE List","prefix":"CVE"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"CC BY 4.0","name":"GitHub Advisory Database","prefix":"GHSA"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"CC BY 4.0","name":"PyPA Advisory Database","prefix":"PYSEC"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"CWE Terms of Use","name":"CWE (MITRE)"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"FIRST CVSS licence","name":"CVSS (FIRST)"}],"ssvc":{"automatable":"yes","exploitation":"poc","technical_impact":"partial"},"state":"PUBLISHED","updated":"2026-04-21","vendors":["haris-musa"]},"summary":"Unauthenticated attackers can read, write, or overwrite arbitrary files on the host via path traversal in the Excel MCP server's remote transport mode.","url":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-40576/"}