knowns-dev knowns up to 0.29.1 Document API docs.go cleanDocPath path path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in knowns-dev knowns up to 0.29.1. Affected by this issue is the function cleanDocPath of the file internal/server/routes/docs.go of the component Document API. This manipulation of the argument path causes path traversal. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2026-86775. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in knowns-dev knowns up to 0.29.1. Affected by this vulnerability is the function cleanDocPath of the file internal/server/routes/docs.go of the component Document API. The manipulation of the argument path with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is 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. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

knowns (npm package) versions <= 0.29.1 contain a path traversal vulnerability in the Document API. The HTTP handler in internal/server/routes/docs.go normalizes the user-supplied document path with cleanDocPath(), which strips leading/trailing slashes and the .md suffix but does not neutralize ../ traversal sequences, and internal/storage/doc_store.go then builds the target path with filepath.Join(ds.docsDir(), filepath.FromSlash(doc.Path)+".md") without verifying that the resolved path remains inside the documents directory. In the default deployment, where the Management API is unauthenticated and bound to all interfaces, a remote unauthenticated attacker can supply a traversal payload (for example {"path": "../../../../tmp/knowns_pwn_marker"} to POST /api/docs, or an encoded path to GET /api/docs/...) to read, create, overwrite, or delete arbitrary files with a .md extension anywhere on the host filesystem and to create arbitrary directories via os.MkdirAll. This can expose sensitive data stored in other projects' documentation, corrupt or destroy files, and provide an arbitrary-write primitive that may be chained toward code execution. The issue is fixed in version 0.30.0.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-86775 since 09/08/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1006 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading to version 0.30.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• knowns-dev

Name

• knowns

Version

• 0.29.0
• 0.29.1

Website

• Product: https://github.com/knowns-dev/knowns/

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