CVE-2026-75914

CodeWhale versions before 0.8.64 contain a path traversal vulnerability in the image_analyze tool that fails to canonicalize symlinks before reading files. Attackers can create workspace symlinks pointing to external files with image extensions to leak file bytes to the vision endpoint without user approval.

CodeWhale versions before 0.8.64 contain a path traversal vulnerability in the image_analyze tool that fails to canonicalize symlinks before reading files. Attackers can create workspace symlinks pointing to external files with image extensions to leak file bytes to the vision endpoint without user approval.

Maintainer resolution

The CodeWhale maintainers validated this report. The affected package ranges are recorded in the advisory metadata. Version 0.8.64 contains the fix in commit 26de44a8bd5051f8f944ea60b2c37ae1d2b7d25e. Users should upgrade to 0.8.64 or later. The original reporter analysis is preserved below.

Summary

image_analyze follows workspace symlinks and leaks outside-workspace file bytes to the vision endpoint

The image_analyze tool resolves its image_path with a bare context.workspace.join instead of routing through ToolContext::resolve_path. The pre-join lexical check rejects absolute paths, Windows prefixes, and parent-dir components but never canonicalizes, so a symlink inside the workspace whose name ends in an image extension and whose target sits outside the workspace is read transparently. The tool has ReadOnly capability and the trait default makes it auto-approved, so the bypass executes with no user prompt.

Details

In crates/tui/src/vision/tools.rs (v0.8.37, lines 104-123):

async fn execute(&self, input: Value, context: &ToolContext) -> Result<ToolResult, ToolError> {
    let image_path = required_str(&input, "image_path")?;
    let prompt = input
        .get("prompt")
        .and_then(|v| v.as_str())
        .unwrap_or("Describe this image in detail.");

    let image_path_buf = Path::new(image_path);
    if image_path_buf.components().any(|c| {
        matches!(
            c,
            Component::Prefix(_) | Component::RootDir | Component::ParentDir
        )
    }) {
        return Err(ToolError::execution_failed(
            "image_path must be a relative path within the workspace and cannot escape it.",
        ));
    }
    let resolved_path = context.workspace.join(image_path_buf);
    let (image_data, mime_type) = Self::read_image_file(&resolved_path).await?;

read_image_file (lines 31-39) is a tokio::fs::read(path) call which follows symlinks. The bytes are then base64-encoded and embedded as data:<mime>;base64,<bytes> in the chat-completion payload that is POSTed to ${base_url}/chat/completions with the user's Authorization header.

The lexical guard rejects ../etc/passwd, /etc/passwd, and C:\Windows\..., but a symlink such as workspace/screenshot.png -> /etc/passwd produces components [Normal("screenshot.png")]. None of Prefix, RootDir, or ParentDir match, so the check passes and the symlink is followed at read time.

The peer file-reading tools all use the central resolver instead. For example, crates/tui/src/tools/image_ocr.rs:60-65:

let path_str = required_str(&input, "path")?;
let image_path = context.resolve_path(path_str)?;

resolve_path in crates/tui/src/tools/spec.rs:342-449 canonicalizes the candidate and rejects results whose canonical form does not start with the canonical workspace path:

if candidate.exists() {
    let canonical = candidate.canonicalize().map_err(...)?;
    if !canonical.starts_with(&workspace_canonical)
        && !self.is_trusted_external_path(&canonical)
    {
        return Err(ToolError::PathEscape { path: canonical });
    }
    ...
}

In the same symlink scenario, image_ocr, pandoc_convert, read_file, apply_patch, rlm_open, and fim all return ToolError::PathEscape because the canonical target falls outside the workspace. image_analyze is the lone caller that skips this check.

The tool declares ToolCapability::ReadOnly and does not override approval_requirement(). The trait default (crates/tui/src/tools/spec.rs:612-620) resolves ReadOnly to ApprovalRequirement::Auto. The engine then sets approval_required = spec.approval_requirement() != ApprovalRequirement::Auto, which is false for this tool (crates/tui/src/core/engine/turn_loop.rs:1159-1184). The model can invoke image_analyze on any turn without a user prompt.

The recent commit 2326220 fix(vision): reject rooted image paths on windows (2026-05-12) tightened the lexical guard to…

CodeWhale versions before 0.8.64 contain a path traversal vulnerability in the image_analyze tool that fails to canonicalize symlinks before reading files. Attackers can create workspace symlinks pointing to external files with image extensions to leak file bytes to the vision endpoint without user approval.

CodeWhale versions before 0.8.64 contain a path traversal vulnerability in the image_analyze tool that fails to canonicalize symlinks before reading files. Attackers can create workspace symlinks pointing to external files with image extensions to leak file bytes to the vision endpoint without user approval.

Maintainer resolution

The CodeWhale maintainers validated this report. The affected package ranges are recorded in the advisory metadata. Version 0.8.64 contains the fix in commit 26de44a8bd5051f8f944ea60b2c37ae1d2b7d25e. Users should upgrade to 0.8.64 or later. The original reporter analysis is preserved below.

Summary

image_analyze follows workspace symlinks and leaks outside-workspace file bytes to the vision endpoint

The image_analyze tool resolves its image_path with a bare context.workspace.join instead of routing through ToolContext::resolve_path. The pre-join lexical check rejects absolute paths, Windows prefixes, and parent-dir components but never canonicalizes, so a symlink inside the workspace whose name ends in an image extension and whose target sits outside the workspace is read transparently. The tool has ReadOnly capability and the trait default makes it auto-approved, so the bypass executes with no user prompt.

Details

In crates/tui/src/vision/tools.rs (v0.8.37, lines 104-123):

async fn execute(&self, input: Value, context: &ToolContext) -> Result<ToolResult, ToolError> {
    let image_path = required_str(&input, "image_path")?;
    let prompt = input
        .get("prompt")
        .and_then(|v| v.as_str())
        .unwrap_or("Describe this image in detail.");

    let image_path_buf = Path::new(image_path);
    if image_path_buf.components().any(|c| {
        matches!(
            c,
            Component::Prefix(_) | Component::RootDir | Component::ParentDir
        )
    }) {
        return Err(ToolError::execution_failed(
            "image_path must be a relative path within the workspace and cannot escape it.",
        ));
    }
    let resolved_path = context.workspace.join(image_path_buf);
    let (image_data, mime_type) = Self::read_image_file(&resolved_path).await?;

read_image_file (lines 31-39) is a tokio::fs::read(path) call which follows symlinks. The bytes are then base64-encoded and embedded as data:<mime>;base64,<bytes> in the chat-completion payload that is POSTed to ${base_url}/chat/completions with the user's Authorization header.

The lexical guard rejects ../etc/passwd, /etc/passwd, and C:\Windows\..., but a symlink such as workspace/screenshot.png -> /etc/passwd produces components [Normal("screenshot.png")]. None of Prefix, RootDir, or ParentDir match, so the check passes and the symlink is followed at read time.

The peer file-reading tools all use the central resolver instead. For example, crates/tui/src/tools/image_ocr.rs:60-65:

let path_str = required_str(&input, "path")?;
let image_path = context.resolve_path(path_str)?;

resolve_path in crates/tui/src/tools/spec.rs:342-449 canonicalizes the candidate and rejects results whose canonical form does not start with the canonical workspace path:

if candidate.exists() {
    let canonical = candidate.canonicalize().map_err(...)?;
    if !canonical.starts_with(&workspace_canonical)
        && !self.is_trusted_external_path(&canonical)
    {
        return Err(ToolError::PathEscape { path: canonical });
    }
    ...
}

In the same symlink scenario, image_ocr, pandoc_convert, read_file, apply_patch, rlm_open, and fim all return ToolError::PathEscape because the canonical target falls outside the workspace. image_analyze is the lone caller that skips this check.

The tool declares ToolCapability::ReadOnly and does not override approval_requirement(). The trait default (crates/tui/src/tools/spec.rs:612-620) resolves ReadOnly to ApprovalRequirement::Auto. The engine then sets approval_required = spec.approval_requirement() != ApprovalRequirement::Auto, which is false for this tool (crates/tui/src/core/engine/turn_loop.rs:1159-1184). The model can invoke image_analyze on any turn without a user prompt.

The recent commit 2326220 fix(vision): reject rooted image paths on windows (2026-05-12) tightened the lexical guard to…