hexpm hex up to 2.5.1 Dependency Resolution Hex.RemoteConverger.deps path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in hexpm hex up to 2.5.1. Affected is the function Hex.RemoteConverger.deps of the component Dependency Resolution. The manipulation leads to path traversal. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-96612. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in hexpm hex up to 2.5.1. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects the function Hex.RemoteConverger.deps of the component Dependency Resolution. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to 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. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in hexpm hex allows a malicious package publisher to delete a directory outside the project's deps directory and extract package files into it when a developer fetches dependencies. A package release's requirements carry an app label that names the dependency's OTP application. Hex takes this label from the repository's signed registry and uses it as the dependency's application name without validating it (Hex.RemoteConverger.deps/2, Hex.Mix.to_lock/1). Mix derives the dependency's checkout directory as deps/<app>, and Hex.SCM.update/1 runs File.rm_rf!/1 on that directory and unpacks the package into it. hex.pm only checks the label's length, so a publisher can set it to a value such as ../../target. When a project depends on such a release directly or transitively, mix deps.get or mix deps.update deletes the directory the label resolves to and writes the labelled package's files there. This happens before any dependency code is compiled. This issue affects hex: from 0.6.0 before 2.5.2.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-96612 since 10/01/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. 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 2.5.2 eliminates this vulnerability.

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• hexpm

Name

• hex

Version

• 2.5.0
• 2.5.1

Website

• Product: https://github.com/hexpm/hex/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Discussion