Vulnerability Report: Grav CMS Unauthenticated Path Traversal & Arbitrary File Write

[ZERO-DAY] Unauthenticated Path Traversal leading to Arbitrary Directory Creation and Configuration Injection

Summary

Grav CMS (v1.7.49.5 and latest development source) is vulnerable to a Zero-Day Path Traversal vulnerability within the FormFlash core component. By manipulating the session_id (passed as __form-flash-id in POST requests), an unauthenticated attacker can traverse the filesystem to create arbitrary directories and write an index.yaml file containing attacker-controlled data.

This vulnerability can lead to unauthorized modification of application behavior, potential data integrity issues, and service disruption in production environments.

Affected Component

• Versions: Confirmed in Grav v1.7.49.5 (latest stable) and the latest development source (March 2026).
• Class: Grav\Framework\Form\FormFlash
• Method: __construct() / getTmpDir()
• Parameter: session_id (Mapped to __form-flash-id in POST requests)

Vulnerability Details

The FormFlash class is used to persist form data across redirects. It constructs a temporary storage path using the provided session_id. The path construction logic in the latest source:

$folder = $config['folder'] ?? ($this->sessionId ? 'tmp://forms/' . $this->sessionId : '');
$this->folder = $folder && $locator->isStream($folder) ? $locator->findResource($folder, true, true) : $folder;

Lack of sanitization on the sessionId (the raw session identifier) allows the use of ../ sequences. When findResource resolves the stream, it allows escape into any writable directory within the webserver's scope (typically user/config/, cache/, logs/, and tmp/).

Affected Versions & Zero-Day Status

• Tested Version: v1.7.49.5 (Latest Stable Release as of Nov 2025).
• Development Branch Status: Vulnerable. The latest source code in the GitHub develop branch (March 2026) remains unpatched.
• Affected...