Findings

Security incident · CVE-2026-43965

Path traversal vulnerability in Gleam's dependency management allows arbitrary directory deletion via malicious build/packages/packages.toml content.

Published Jun 2, 2026 · corrected/updated Oct 6, 2026 · evidence confidence medium

Path traversal vulnerability in Gleam's dependency management allows arbitrary directory deletion via malicious build/packages/packages.toml content. Package keys read from build/packages/packages.toml by LocalPackages::read_from_disc are passed without validation to paths.build_packages_package(), which constructs a filesystem path by joining the project build directory with the attacker-controlled key. The resulting path is then passed to fs::delete_directory (which calls remove_dir_all). No check is performed to ensure the path remains within the intended build/packages/ directory. Both absolute paths and relative traversal sequences (e.g. ../) are accepted as package keys, allowing deletion of arbitrary directories. An attacker who can cause a victim to run gleam deps download on a project containing a malicious build/packages/packages.toml (e.g. by committing the normally-gitignored file to a repository) can cause arbitrary directories on the victim's system to be recursively deleted. This issue affects Gleam from 0.18.0-rc1 until 1.17.0.

Grounded briefings

Catalog interpretations for three audiences. Each brief cites ingested metadata and the original advisories below. They are not independent research and they do not invent exploit steps.

Executive

CVE-2026-43965 is a medium public vulnerability record for this product. It is not currently listed in the CISA Known Exploited catalog. Check the linked vendor or CERT advisories for patch status. This summary is a catalog interpretation of the ingested metadata and cites the original advisories below.

System administrator

Identify whether this product is in your estate, then compare installed versions with the affected ranges. Affected version ranges have not been ingested yet. Check the linked vendor or CERT advisories for patch status. Prefer the vendor or distribution advisory linked in Sources before changing production systems. This is a catalog interpretation, not a runbook.

Security analyst

Signals on file: CVSS 5.6. It is not currently listed in the CISA Known Exploited catalog. Weakness classes: CWE-22. Sources contributing to this record: nvd. Public exploit references, when present, are outbound links only and are not proof of active exploitation. This is a catalog interpretation of stored metadata.

Exploitation and remediation

  • Exploitation evidence

    Not listed as known exploited in CISA KEV. Not in CISA KEV or VulnCheck KEV.

  • Patch and remediation

    No required-action text is stored yet. Use the vendor or CERT links in Sources for patch availability.

  • Safe detection guidance

    Compare installed versions with the affected ranges below and verify the advisory from the original publisher. This site stores metadata and outbound links only; it does not ship exploit code or proof-of-concept payloads.

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

  1. Jun 2, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Detected

    Path traversal vulnerability in Gleam's dependency management allows arbitrary directory deletion via malicious build/packages/packages.toml content. Package keys read from build/packages/packages.toml by LocalPackages::read_from_disc are passed without validation to paths.build_packages_package(), which constructs a filesystem path by joining the project build directory with the attacker-controll

  2. Oct 6, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Updated

    Path traversal vulnerability in Gleam's dependency management allows arbitrary directory deletion via malicious build/packages/packages.toml content. Package keys read from build/packages/packages.toml by LocalPackages::read_from_disc are passed without validation to paths.build_packages_package(), which constructs a filesystem path by joining the project build directory with the attacker-controll

Sources

  • NIST NVDVulnerability recordCVE-2026-43965

    Path traversal vulnerability in Gleam's dependency management allows arbitrary directory deletion via malicious build/packages/packages.toml content. Package keys read from build/packages/packages.toml by LocalPackages::read_from_disc are passed without validation to paths.build

    nvd.nist.gov

References