GHSA-5rjg-fvgr-3xxf setuptools has a path traversal vulnerability in PackageIndex.download that leads to Arbitrary File Write

• PyPI setuptools: < 78.1.1 → fixed in 78.1.1

Summary A path traversal vulnerability in `PackageIndex` was fixed in setuptools version 78.1.1 Details ``` def _download_url(self, url, tmpdir): # Determine download filename # name, _fragment = egg_info_for_url(url) if name: while '..' in name: name = name.replace('..', '.').replace('\\', '_') else: name = "__downloaded__" # default if URL has no path contents if name.endswith('.egg.zip'): name = name[:-4] # strip the extra .zip before download --> filename = os.path.join(tmpdir, name) ``` Here: https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/blob/6ead555c5fb29bc57fe6105b1bffc163f56fd558/setuptools/package_index.py#L810C1-L825C88 `os.path.join()` discards the first argument `tmpdir` if the second begins with a slash or drive letter. `name` is derived from a URL without sufficient sanitization. While there is some attempt to sanitize by replacing instances of '..' with '.', it is insufficient. Risk Assessment As easy_install and package_index are deprecated, the exploitation surface is reduced. However, it seems this could be exploited in a similar fashion like https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-r9hx-vwmv-q579, and as described by POC 4 in https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cx63-2mw6-8hw5 report: via malicious URLs present on the pages of a package index. Impact An attacker would be allowed to write files to arbitrary locations on the filesystem with the permissions of the process running the Python code, which could escalate to RCE depending on the context. References https://huntr.com/bounties/d6362117-ad57-4e83-951f-b8141c6e7ca5 https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/4946