harttle/liquidjs · Security
LiquidJS: `renderFile()` / `parseFile()` bypass configured `root` and allow arbitrary file read
- GHSA ID
- GHSA-v273-448j-v4qj
- CVE ID
- CVE-2026-39859
- Severity
- medium
- Published
- Updated
- CVSS v4
- 6.3 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Description
liquidjs 10.25.0 documents root as constraining filenames passed to renderFile() and parseFile(), but top-level file loads do not enforce that boundary.
The published npm package [email protected] on Linux 6.17.0 with Node v22.22.1. A Liquid instance configured with an empty temporary directory as root still returned the contents of /etc/hosts when renderFile('/etc/hosts') was called. I have not exhaustively checked older releases yet; 10.25.0 is the latest tested version.
Root cause:
src/parser/parser.ts:83-85callsloader.lookup(file, LookupType.Root, ...)and then reads the returned file.src/fs/loader.ts:38passestype !== LookupType.Rootintocandidates().- For
LookupType.Root,enforceRootis false, sosrc/fs/loader.ts:47-66accepts resolved absolute paths and fallback results without anycontains()check.
This appears adjacent to the March 10, 2026 fix for CVE-2026-30952, which hardened include / render / layout but not the top-level file-loading APIs.
Proof of concept:
const fs = require('fs');
const os = require('os');
const path = require('path');
const { Liquid } = require('liquidjs');
const safeRoot = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'liquidjs-safe-root-'));
const engine = new Liquid({ root: [safeRoot], extname: '.liquid' });
engine.renderFile('/etc/hosts').then(console.log);
Expected result: a path outside root should be rejected.
Actual result: /etc/hosts is rendered successfully.
Impact: any application that treats root as a sandbox boundary and forwards attacker-controlled template names into renderFile() or parseFile() can disclose arbitrary local files readable by the server process.
Suggested fix: apply the same containment checks used for partial/layout lookups to LookupType.Root, and reject absolute or fallback paths unless they remain within an allowed root. A regression test should verify that renderFile('/etc/hosts') fails when root points to an unrelated directory.
CWEs
- CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
References
- https://github.com/harttle/liquidjs/security/advisories/GHSA-v273-448j-v4qj ↗
- https://github.com/harttle/liquidjs/pull/870 ↗
- https://github.com/harttle/liquidjs/commit/f41c1fc02fe901598f3328118b42b13bc6bc9b04 ↗
- https://github.com/harttle/liquidjs/releases/tag/v10.25.5 ↗
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-39859 ↗
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-v273-448j-v4qj ↗