Vulnerability Database

326,895

Total vulnerabilities in the database

SiYuan Vulnerable to Path Traversal in /export Endpoint Allows Arbitrary File Read and Secret Leakage

Summary

A path traversal vulnerability in the /export endpoint allows an attacker to read arbitrary files from the server filesystem. By exploiting double‑encoded traversal sequences, an attacker can access sensitive files such as conf/conf.json, which contains secrets including the API token, cookie signing key, and workspace access authentication code.

Leaking these secrets may enable administrative access to the SiYuan kernel API, and in certain deployment scenarios could potentially be chained into remote code execution (RCE).

Details

File: serve.go, session.go Lines: serve.go 303, 315, 320, 340, 955-957; session.go 292-295

Vulnerable Code:

// session.go if localhost { if strings.HasPrefix(c.Request.RequestURI, "/assets/") || strings.HasPrefix(c.Request.RequestURI, "/export/") { c.Set(RoleContextKey, RoleAdministrator) c.Next() return } } // serve.go filePath := strings.TrimPrefix(c.Request.URL.Path, "/export/") decodedPath, err := url.PathUnescape(filePath) fullPath := filepath.Join(exportBaseDir, decodedPath) c.File(fullPath) // CORS c.Header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*")

Points of Vulnerability:

  • /export/* trusts url.PathUnescape output and joins it without enforcing fullPath to stay under exportBaseDir.
  • Double-encoded traversal (%252e%252e) bypasses ServeFile dot-dot URL rejection but is decoded by app logic into ...
  • CheckAuth grants admin for localhost requests to /export/* when access auth code is set.
  • Global CORS Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * allows hostile web pages to read localhost responses.

PoC

Reproduction Steps:

  1. Send a GET request to /export/%252e%252e/%252e%252e/conf/conf.json or export/%252e%252e/%252e%252e/%252e%252e/%252e%252e/%252e%252e/%252e%252e/%252e%252e/etc/passwd

  2. If HTTP 200 is returned, inspect the response body for sensitive fields:

api.token cookieKey accessAuthCode

or

/etc/passwd
  1. (Optional) If api.token is present, test admin API access:
POST /api/system/getNetwork Header: Authorization: Token <leaked token>
  1. Confirm that the response indicates administrative privileges. All steps can be performed with read-only HTTP requests; no Docker or local modifications are needed.

Impact

This vulnerability can lead to serious compromise of a SiYuan instance, including:

Arbitrary File Disclosure

  • Attackers can read files anywhere on the server filesystem, including system files such as /etc/passwd.

Exposure of Sensitive Secrets

  • Configuration files such as conf/conf.json contain sensitive information including:
  • API tokens
  • cookie signing keys
  • workspace authentication codes

Administrative API Access

  • Leaked tokens can allow attackers to interact with privileged SiYuan kernel APIs.

Cross‑Origin Localhost Data Exfiltration

  • Because the server sets Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *, a malicious website can exploit the vulnerability to read files from a victim's local SiYuan instance running on 127.0.0.1.

Potential Remote Code Execution (RCE)

  • Disclosure of authentication secrets and internal configuration may enable attackers to chain this vulnerability with other application features or APIs to achieve remote code execution or full system compromise.

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: Unknown
  • Score:
  • AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:L

CWEs:

OWASP TOP 10:

Software From Fixed in
Go icon github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan/kernel - 3.5.10

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

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