# CVE-2026-91940: crawl4ai before 0.9.3 Arbitrary File Write via PDFContentScrapingStrategy

> Attackers can write arbitrary files to any accessible directory via crafted configuration paths in the PDF scraping strategy, potentially leading to code execution.

- **Severity:** High 8.7 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/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:** 15 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 15 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-86m6-ccmv-j88p, GHSA-xpp7-j28w-2gvx

## What is CVE-2026-91940?

CVE-2026-91940 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in unclecode crawl4ai, published on 15 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

crawl4ai before 0.9.3 contains an arbitrary file write vulnerability in PDFContentScrapingStrategy where the _filter_untrusted_fields function fails to validate untrusted configuration fields. Attackers can submit crafted config bodies with malicious image_save_dir paths to write attacker-controlled bytes into any directory accessible to the service account.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-91940?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-91940?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-91940 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-91940 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-91940 exists.

Public exploit code:

- CVE-2026-91940: arbitrary file write in crawl4ai <=0.9.2 via the untrusted-config gate (PDFContentScrapingStrategy image_save_dir). Analysis, reproduction harness and verified 0.9.2 vs 0.9.3 boundary. (github_poc): https://github.com/BiiTts/CVE-2026-91940-crawl4ai-Arbitrary-File-Write

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-91940 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-91940 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in unclecode crawl4ai, published on 15 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-91940 exists.

Affected product: unclecode crawl4ai. 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-2026-91940/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-91940/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-91940
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-91940
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-91940

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-91940/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.