Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-6781

Path Traversal in Calibre-Ebook Calibre ≤ 7.14.0

Published
06 August 2024
Modified
19 August 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.62 99.1th percentile
Risk Priority 83 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-6781 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Calibre-Ebook Calibre. 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 0.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

Calibre versions up to and including 7.14.0 contain a path traversal vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-6781 and assigned CWE-22. The flaw permits unauthenticated remote attackers to read arbitrary files on the affected system, reflected in its CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5 with network attack vector, low complexity, and no required privileges or user interaction.

An attacker can send crafted requests over the network to traverse directories and retrieve sensitive files without authentication, potentially exposing configuration data, user documents, or other restricted content hosted by the Calibre instance.

The referenced GitHub commit bcd0ab12c41a887f8290a9b56e46c3a29038d9c4 implements the fix in the Calibre codebase, and the Star Labs advisory at starlabs.sg provides further technical details on the issue. The associated EPSS score remains elevated near 0.94 with negligible movement between its recorded peak and current values.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Path traversal in Calibre <= 7.14.0 allow unauthenticated attackers to achieve arbitrary file read.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

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.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-26064Same product: Calibre-Ebook Calibre
CVE-2026-25635Same product: Calibre-Ebook Calibre
CVE-2026-26065Same product: Calibre-Ebook Calibre
CVE-2026-30853Same product: Calibre-Ebook Calibre
CVE-2026-25636Same product: Calibre-Ebook Calibre
CVE-2025-21048Shared CWE-22
CVE-2026-23939Shared CWE-22
CVE-2024-7145Shared CWE-22
CVE-2023-42225Shared CWE-22
CVE-2024-33109Shared CWE-22

Affected Assets

calibre-ebook
calibre
≤ 7.14.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.

Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.

Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.

PR.AA-05 none match
prevents

PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.

prevents

Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.

prevents

Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.

mitigates

Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.

References