haris-musa excel-mcp-server up to 0.1.7 get_excel_path filepath path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in haris-musa excel-mcp-server up to 0.1.7. This impacts the function get_excel_path. Performing a manipulation of the argument filepath results in path traversal. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2026-40576. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in haris-musa excel-mcp-server up to 0.1.7. It has been classified as critical. This affects the function get_excel_path. The manipulation of the argument filepath with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-22. 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. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

excel-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.

The advisory is shared at github.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-40576 since 04/14/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1006 for this issue.

Upgrading to version 0.1.8 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Type

• Artificial Intelligence Software

Vendor

• haris-musa

Name

• excel-mcp-server

Version

• 0.1.0
• 0.1.1
• 0.1.2
• 0.1.3
• 0.1.4
• 0.1.5
• 0.1.6
• 0.1.7

Website

• Product: https://github.com/haris-musa/excel-mcp-server/

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Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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