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melange has Path Traversal When Resolving External Pipelines via Unvalidated pipeline[].uses

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Apr 23, 2026 in chainguard-dev/melange • Updated Apr 27, 2026

Package

gomod chainguard.dev/melange (Go)

Affected versions

>= 0.32.0, < 0.43.4

Patched versions

0.43.4

Description

Impact

An attacker who can influence a melange configuration file — for example through pull-request-driven CI or build-as-a-service scenarios — could set pipeline[].uses to a value containing ../ sequences or an absolute path. The (*Compiled).compilePipeline function in pkg/build/compile.go passed uses directly to filepath.Join(pipelineDir, uses + ".yaml") without validating the value, so the resolved path could escape each --pipeline-dir and read an arbitrary YAML-parseable file visible to the melange process. Because the loaded file is subsequently interpreted as a melange pipeline and its runs: block is executed via /bin/sh -c in the build sandbox, this additionally allowed shell commands sourced from an out-of-tree file to run during the build, bypassing the review boundary that normally covers the in-tree pipeline definition.

Patches

Fixed in melange v0.43.4 via commit 5829ca4. The fix rejects uses values that are absolute paths or contain .., and verifies (via filepath.Rel after filepath.Clean) that the resolved target remains within the pipeline directory.

Workarounds

Only run melange build against configuration files from trusted sources. In CI systems that build user-supplied melange configs, gate builds behind manual review of pipeline[].uses values and reject any containing .. or leading /.

Credits

melange thanks Oleh Konko (@1seal from 1seal.org) for discovering and reporting this issue.

References

@antitree antitree published to chainguard-dev/melange Apr 23, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Apr 23, 2026
Reviewed Apr 23, 2026
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Apr 24, 2026
Last updated Apr 27, 2026

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(1st percentile)

Weaknesses

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-29050

GHSA ID

GHSA-98f2-w9h9-7fp9

Credits

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