Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') in excel-mcp-server

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Summary

CVECVE-2026-40576
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-04-21 17:16:55 UTC
Updated2026-04-21 17:16:55 UTC
Descriptionexcel-mcp-server is a Model Context Protocol server for Excel file manipulation. A path traversal vulnerability exists in excel-mcp-server versions up to and including 0.1.7. When running in SSE or Streamable-HTTP transport mode (the documented way to use this server remotely), an unauthenticated attacker on the network can read, write, and overwrite arbitrary files on the host filesystem by supplying crafted filepath arguments to any of the 25 exposed MCP tool handlers. The server is intended to confine file operations to a directory set by the EXCEL_FILES_PATH environment variable. The function responsible for enforcing this boundary — get_excel_path() — fails to do so due to two independent flaws: it passes absolute paths through without any check, and it joins relative paths without resolving or validating the result. Combined with zero authentication on the default network-facing transport and a default bind address of 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces), this allows trivial remote exploitation. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.1.8.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 9.4 CRITICAL from ADP

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:H

Problem Types: CWE-22 | CWE-22 CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1ADPDECLARED9.4CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:H
3.1[email protected]Secondary9.4CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:H
3.1134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0Secondary9.4CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED9.4CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:H

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Haris-musa Excel-mcp-server affected < 0.1.8 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/haris-musa/excel-mcp-server/security/advisories/GHSA-j98m-w3x... 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 github.com
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