Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-36857

HighPublic PoC

Published: 04 June 2024

Published
04 June 2024
Modified
21 November 2024
KEV Added
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Patch
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CVSS Score v3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.5147 98.0th percentile
Risk Priority 46 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2024-36857 is a high-severity Path Traversal: 'dir\..\..\filename' (CWE-31) vulnerability in Homebrew Jan. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 2.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

This vulnerability is AI-related — categorised as Enterprise AI Assistants; in the Privacy and Disclosure risk domain; MITRE ATLAS techniques in scope: Obtain Capabilities (AML.T0016), Exfiltration via AI Inference API (AML.T0024).

Deeper analysis

Jan v0.4.12 contains an arbitrary file read vulnerability in the /v1/app/readFileSync interface. The flaw is tracked as CVE-2024-36857 with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5, reflecting network-accessible attack conditions that require no authentication or user interaction and result in high confidentiality impact without affecting integrity or availability. The affected component is the Jan application, which exposes this interface to external callers.

Unauthenticated remote attackers can invoke the readFileSync endpoint to retrieve the contents of arbitrary files on the underlying system. Successful exploitation grants direct access to sensitive data such as configuration files, credentials, or source code without any additional privileges.

Public references consist of GitHub repositories documenting the Jan arbitrary-file-read issue, but no vendor advisory, patch release, or mitigation guidance is provided in the available sources. The EPSS score has reached a peak of 0.5611 with a current value of 0.5147; no trajectory data from a low baseline is supplied.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Jan v0.4.12 was discovered to contain an arbitrary file read vulnerability via the /v1/app/readFileSync interface.

CWE(s)
NVD-CWE-noinfoCWE-31

AI Security AnalysisAI

AI Category
Enterprise AI Assistants
Risk Domain
Privacy and Disclosure
OWASP Top 10 for LLMs 2025
None mapped
Classification Reason
Jan.ai is an open-source desktop AI assistant application that runs LLMs locally and offline as a ChatGPT alternative, fitting the Enterprise AI Assistants category as an AI chat platform with API interfaces.

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
attack.mitre.org →
T1552.001 Credentials In Files Credential Access
Adversaries may search local file systems and remote file shares for files containing insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Why these techniques?

Arbitrary file read vulnerability via the /v1/app/readFileSync API enables exploitation of a public-facing application (T1190), collection of data from local system files (T1005), and theft of unsecured credentials stored in files (T1552.001).

MITRE ATLAS TechniquesAI

MITRE ATLAS techniques

AML.T0016: Obtain CapabilitiesAML.T0024: Exfiltration via AI Inference API

Affected Assets

homebrew
jan
0.4.12

Mitigating Controls

No mitigating controls mapped yet. The per-CVE control annotator has not reached this CVE.

References