PYSEC-2026-2044
Werkzeug safe_join() allows Windows special device names with compound extensions
At a glance
- Published
- Updated
- CVE
- CVE-2026-21860
- Aliases
- GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7
- CVSS_V3
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- CVSS_V4
- CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Description
Werkzeug's `safe_join` function allows path segments with Windows device names that have file extensions or trailing spaces. On Windows, there are special device names such as `CON`, `AUX`, etc that are implicitly present and readable in every directory. Windows still accepts them with any file extension, such as `CON.txt`, or trailing spaces such as `CON `. This was previously reported as https://github.com/pallets/werkzeug/security/advisories/GHSA-hgf8-39gv-g3f2, but the fix failed to account for compound extensions such as `CON.txt.html` or trailing spaces. It also missed some additional special names. `send_from_directory` uses `safe_join` to safely serve files at user-specified paths under a directory. If the application is running on Windows, and the requested path ends with a special device name, the file will be opened successfully, but reading will hang indefinitely.
Affected packages
| Package | Versions |
|---|---|
| PyPI · werkzeug | introduced 0, fixed 3.1.5 |
References
- https://github.com/pallets/werkzeug/security/advisories/GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 WEB
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-21860 ADVISORY
- https://github.com/pallets/werkzeug/commit/7ae1d254e04a0c33e241ac1cca4783ce6c875ca3 WEB
- https://github.com/pallets/werkzeug PACKAGE
- https://pypi.org/project/werkzeug PACKAGE
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-87hc-h4r5-73f7 ADVISORY
Sources
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| OSV.dev | CC-BY 4.0 — PyPA Advisory Database |