CVE-2026-55609 in sublinear-time-solver
Summary
by MITRE • 08/25/2026
sublinear-time-solver is a Rust and WebAssembly library for solving asymmetric diagonally dominant systems in sublinear time. Prior to consciousness-explorer 1.1.2 and sublinear-time-solver 1.6.0, the export_state and import_state tools in src/consciousness-explorer/mcp/server.js pass the attacker-controlled filepath parameter to filesystem operations in src/consciousness-explorer/index.js without restricting the destination or rejecting traversal. The saveVectorToFile and loadVectorFromFile tools in src/mcp/server.ts contain the same sink class through the file_path parameter. An attacker able to invoke the MCP tools can read, write, or overwrite any file accessible to the server process, causing confidentiality and integrity loss and possible service disruption. This issue is fixed in consciousness-explorer 1.1.2 and sublinear-time-solver 1.6.0.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/25/2026
The vulnerability identified involves a path traversal flaw within the consciousness-explorer application, specifically affecting versions prior to 1.1.2 and its dependency sublinear-time-solver prior to version 1.6.0. This security issue stems from improper input validation in server-side tools that handle file system operations. The core of the problem lies in how user-supplied data is processed before being passed to underlying operating system functions for reading or writing files. When an attacker provides a filepath parameter containing directory traversal sequences, such as dot-dot-slash characters, the application fails to sanitize this input effectively. Consequently, these malicious paths are interpreted by the file system operations rather than being rejected or normalized into safe locations within the intended working directory.
The technical flaw is present in multiple components of the architecture. In the JavaScript-based server implementation located at src/consciousness-explorer/mcp/server.js, the export_state and import_state tools accept a filepath parameter that is directly passed to filesystem operations defined in index.js without any restriction on the destination path or rejection of traversal attempts. Similarly, the TypeScript-based MCP server code found in src/mcp/server.ts contains identical vulnerabilities within its saveVectorToFile and loadVectorFromFile functions. These sinks allow an attacker who can invoke these Model Context Protocol tools to manipulate arbitrary file paths. The lack of strict validation means that relative paths are not resolved against a base directory securely, allowing the application to access files outside the intended scope.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to the potential for both confidentiality and integrity violations. An attacker with the ability to call these specific MCP tools can read sensitive configuration files, source code, or other data stored on the server's file system that would otherwise be inaccessible. Furthermore, the write capabilities allow an adversary to overwrite existing critical files or create new malicious scripts within directories accessible by the server process. This level of control over the underlying file system can lead to complete compromise of the application environment, including potential service disruption if essential operational files are corrupted or deleted. The risk is exacerbated in environments where the server runs with elevated privileges, as it could allow for further lateral movement or privilege escalation on the host machine.
This vulnerability aligns with Common Weakness Enumeration identifier CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory, which describes scenarios where software does not properly neutralize path sequences that can resolve to a parent directory outside the restricted location. From an offensive security perspective, this behavior is consistent with ATT&CK technique T1083: File and Directory Discovery, as it enables unauthorized enumeration and access to system files. To mitigate this risk, organizations should immediately upgrade consciousness-explorer to version 1.1.2 or later and sublinear-time-solver to version 1.6.0 or later, where the path traversal issue has been addressed through improved input validation and safe file handling practices. Until an update is applied, administrators should restrict network access to these MCP tools to trusted sources only and ensure that the server process runs with minimal necessary permissions to limit the blast radius of any potential exploitation attempts involving arbitrary file read or write operations.