CWE-55 — Path Equivalence: '/./' (Single Dot Directory)
CWE-55: Path Equivalence: '/./' (Single Dot Directory)
MITRE CWE weakness
| Kind | Weakness |
| Abstraction | Variant |
| Status | Incomplete |
| Likelihood of exploit | — |
Description
The product accepts path input in the form of single dot directory exploit ('/./') without appropriate validation, which can lead to ambiguous path resolution and allow an attacker to traverse the file system to unintended locations or access arbitrary files.
Common consequences
- Confidentiality, Integrity: Read Files or Directories, Modify Files or Directories
Mitigations
Implementation — Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174). Such errors could be used to bypass allowlist validation schemes by introducing dangerous inputs after they have been checked.
References
- CWE page: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/55.html
- CWE list: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/index.html