Fix path traversal in Python and Django
=======================================

Resolve both paths and compare whole components: base =
Path(settings.FILES_ROOT).resolve(), target = (base / name).resolve(), and
return FileResponse(target.open('rb')) only if target.is_relative_to(base).
resolve() collapses ../ and follows symlinks; the check also catches absolute
names. Do not rely on safe_join(), stripping "../" or startswith.

Page: https://softwaresecurity.com/fix/path-traversal/python-django/

What is in this archive
-----------------------
path-traversal/python-django/   the project: three implementations of the same code and one test suite
  files_app/impl/vulnerable.py   (vulnerable)
  files_app/impl/fixed.py   (fixed)
  files_app/impl/wrong.py   (a plausible fix that still fails)
run-all.mjs   runs the tests in all three modes and checks the results (Node.js only)
LICENSE-CODE.txt

Run it
------
  Tested with CPython 3.14.8. run-all.mjs needs Node.js 22 or later. Supported
  versions: https://softwaresecurity.com/fix/versions/

  From the path-traversal/python-django folder, install the dependencies once
  (this needs network access):

    python3 -m venv .venv
    .venv/bin/python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

  Then run the tests. IMPL chooses the implementation the tests load:

    # every test passes
    IMPL=fixed .venv/bin/python -m pytest
    # an exploit test fails
    IMPL=vulnerable .venv/bin/python -m pytest
    # a test fails
    IMPL=wrong .venv/bin/python -m pytest

  The JUnit report is written to reports/junit.xml. To run all three modes and
  check the results in one step, run the harness from this top folder (it needs
  only Node.js; --install runs the install step first):

    node run-all.mjs --install path-traversal/python-django
    node run-all.mjs path-traversal/python-django

Verified
--------
  11 October 2026 on macOS 27.0 (Darwin 27.0.0, arm64), with python CPython
  3.14.8, django 6.1.2, pytest 9.1.1, pytest-django 4.14.0, semgrep 1.180.0,
  bandit 1.9.4. Versions and results hold for that date: run the tests with your
  own versions before relying on the fix.

Licence
-------
  The code is MIT licensed (LICENSE-CODE.txt). The page text is CC BY 4.0.
