GHSA-5rq4-664w-9x2c
Basic FTP has Path Traversal Vulnerability in its downloadToDir() method
Quick fix
GHSA-5rq4-664w-9x2c — basic-ftp: upgrade to the fixed version with the command below.
npm install basic-ftp@5.2.0Details
The `basic-ftp` library contains a path traversal vulnerability in the `downloadToDir()` method. A malicious FTP server can send directory listings with filenames containing path traversal sequences (`../`) that cause files to be written outside the intended download directory.
## Source-to-Sink Flow
``` 1. SOURCE: FTP server sends LIST response └─> "-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 1024 Jan 20 12:00 ../../../etc/passwd"
2. PARSER: parseListUnix.ts:100 extracts filename └─> file.name = "../../../etc/passwd"
3. VALIDATION: parseListUnix.ts:101 checks └─> if (name === "." || name === "..") ❌ (only filters exact matches) └─> "../../../etc/passwd" !== "." && !== ".." ✅ PASSES
4. SINK: Client.ts:707 uses filename directly └─> const localPath = join(localDirPath, file.name) └─> join("/safe/download", "../../../etc/passwd") └─> Result: "/safe/download/../../../etc/passwd" → resolves to "/etc/passwd"
5. FILE WRITE: Client.ts:512 opens file └─> fsOpen(localPath, "w") → writes to /etc/passwd (outside intended directory) ```
## Vulnerable Code
**File**: `src/Client.ts:707`
```typescript protected async _downloadFromWorkingDir(localDirPath: string): Promise<void> { await ensureLocalDirectory(localDirPath) for (const file of await this.list()) { const localPath = join(localDirPath, file.name) // ⚠️ VULNERABLE // file.name comes from untrusted FTP server, no sanitization await this.downloadTo(localPath, file.name) } } ```
**Root Cause**: - Parser validation (`parseListUnix.ts:101`) only filters exact `.` or `..` entries - No sanitization of `../` sequences in filenames - `path.join()` doesn't prevent traversal, `fs.open()` resolves paths
# Impact
A malicious FTP server can: - Write files to arbitrary locations on the client filesystem - Overwrite critical system files (if user has write access) - Potentially achieve remote code execution
## Affected Versions
- **Tested**: v5.1.0 - **Likely**: All versions (code pattern exists since initial implementation)
## Mitigation
**Workaround**: Do not use `downloadToDir()` with untrusted FTP servers.
**Fix**: Sanitize filenames before use:
```typescript import { basename } from 'path'
// In _downloadFromWorkingDir: const sanitizedName = basename(file.name) // Strip path components const localPath = join(localDirPath, sanitizedName) ```
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Affected packages
References
- https://github.com/patrickjuchli/basic-ftp/security/advisories/GHSA-5rq4-664w-9x2c[WEB]
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-27699[ADVISORY]
- https://github.com/patrickjuchli/basic-ftp/commit/2a2a0e6514357b9eda07c2f8afbd3f04727a7cd9[WEB]
- https://github.com/patrickjuchli/basic-ftp[PACKAGE]
- https://github.com/patrickjuchli/basic-ftp/releases/tag/v5.2.0[WEB]