MLflow 3.17.1 and earlier contains a path traversal vulnerability in the FileStore tracking backend that allows unauthenticated attackers to control filesystem paths by submitting a crafted trace ID containing traversal sequences to the POST /api/3.0/mlflow/traces endpoint. Attackers can exploit FileStore.start_trace() to write trace_info.yaml, request_metadata, and tag files with attacker-controlled metadata outside the intended experiment trace directory, subject to the server process's filesystem permissions. FileStore is the default tracking backend before MLflow 3.7.0 and opt-in thereafter (the default changed to a SQLite database), so deployments in the earlier part of the affected range are vulnerable without special configuration while later ones are affected only when FileStore is explicitly selected.
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/mlflow-path-traversal-via-trace-id-api
https://github.com/mlflow/mlflow/pull/26842
https://github.com/SaiTeja-Erukude/CVE-2026-53995-mlflow-path-traversal
Published: 2026-10-19
Updated: 2026-10-20
Base Score: 8.5
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:C/A:P
Severity: High
Base Score: 8.2
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L
Severity: High
Base Score: 8.8
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Severity: High
EPSS: 0.00561