CVE-2020-8161 — Directory traversal in rack — CVE Details
Directory traversal in Rack::Directory app bundled with Rack
Summary
Advisory Timeline
- First published July 6, 2020 (2289 days ago).
- Last revised September 10, 2026 — 2256 days after initial publication.
Remediation
Upgrade to the fixed version using your package manager.
gem install rack -v 2.1.3
After upgrading, run your dependency scanner again to confirm the vulnerability is resolved.
Affected Packages (1)
Affects 1 ecosystem: rubygems (1).
| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed In |
|---|---|---|---|
| rack | rubygems | 0.1.0, 0.2.0, 0.3.0, 0.4.0 (+84 more) | 2.1.3 |
Vulnerability Classification
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers for this vulnerability type.
- CWE-22Path TraversalMITRE
- CWE-548
CVSS Score Breakdown
What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 8.6 score means for each attack dimension.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
References
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-8161ADVISORY
- https://github.com/rack/rack/commit/dddb7ad18ed79ca6ab06ccc417a169fde451246eWEB
- https://github.com/rack/rackPACKAGE
- https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/rack/CVE-2020-8161.ymlWEB
- https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ruby-security-ann/T4ZIsfRf2eAWEB
- https://groups.google.com/g/rubyonrails-security/c/IOO1vNZTzPAWEB
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/07/msg00006.htmlWEB
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00038.htmlWEB
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4561-1WEB
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2020-8161?
- Directory traversal in Rack::Directory app bundled with Rack This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of HIGH (CVSS score: 8.6/10).
- How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2020-8161?
- CVE-2020-8161 affects rack. Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2020-8161 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.
Severity & Exploitability
High exploitability or significant impact. Prioritize remediation within days.
Also Known As
Related CVEs
- CVE-2018-16470HIGH
Rack vulnerable to Denial of Service
- CVE-2022-30122HIGH
Denial of Service Vulnerability in Rack Multipart Parsing
- CVE-2020-8184HIGH
Rack allows Percent-encoded cookies to overwrite existing prefixed cookie names
- CVE-2026-22860HIGH
Rack has a Directory Traversal via Rack:Directory
- CVE-2025-61770HIGH
Rack's unbounded multipart preamble buffering enables DoS (memory exhaustion)
- CVE-2019-16782MEDIUM
Possible Information Leak / Session Hijack Vulnerability in Rack
- CVE-2026-34831MEDIUM
Rack has Content-Length mismatch in Rack::Files error responses
- CVE-2026-34786MEDIUM
Rack:: Static header_rules bypass via URL-encoded paths
Check if you're affected
Scan your dependencies to see if this vulnerability affects your projects.
Scan Your Dependencies