CVE-2026-56258 Crawl4AI - Arbitrary File Write via output_path Symlink and TOCTOU

Critical 9.2 Published 23 Jun 2026 Updated 14 Jul 2026

Unauthenticated attackers can write arbitrary files via symlink and TOCTOU flaws in Crawl4AI, potentially leading to code execution.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2026-56258?

CVE-2026-56258 is a critical path traversal vulnerability in Crawl4AI, published on 23 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Crawl4AI before 0.8.8 contains an arbitrary file write vulnerability in the screenshot and PDF endpoints that allows unauthenticated attackers to write files outside the intended directory via symlink and time-of-check-time-of-use (TOCTOU) attacks on the output_path parameter. Remote attackers can exploit insufficient path validation and symlink following to achieve arbitrary file write and potential code execution on systems where the runtime user has write access to executable or cron locations.

Weakness: CWE-22

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-56258?

3 open source packages ship an affected version, including crawl4ai. It affects 1 product.

Package	Affected	Fixed in
`crawl4ai` PyPI	All versions	`0.8.8`
`crawl4ai` PyPI	All versions	`0.8.8`
`crawl4ai` PyPI	All versions	`0.8.8`

Products include Kidocode Crawl4ai.

How do I fix CVE-2026-56258?

Upgrade crawl4ai to 0.8.8 or later.

Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.

Is CVE-2026-56258 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-56258 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-7cx2-g3h9-382p, GHSA-wx2c-3cp2-f6qw, PYSEC-2026-228.