melange has Path Traversal When Resolving External Pipelines via Unvalidated pipeline[].uses

### Impact An attacker who can influence a melange configuration file — for example through pull-request-driven CI or build-as-a-service scenarios — could set `pipeline[].uses` to a value containing `../` sequences or an absolute path. The `(*Compiled).compilePipeline` function in `pkg/build/compile.go` passed `uses` directly to `filepath.Join(pipelineDir, uses + ".yaml")` without validating the value, so the resolved path could escape each `--pipeline-dir` and read an arbitrary YAML-parseable file visible to the melange process. Because the loaded file is subsequently interpreted as a melange pipeline and its `runs:` block is executed via `/bin/sh -c` in the build sandbox, this additionally allowed shell commands sourced from an out-of-tree file to run during the build, bypassing the review boundary that normally covers the in-tree pipeline definition. ### Patches Fixed in melange **v0.43.4** via commit [5829ca4](https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange/commit/5829ca45cfe14dfeb73ffb716992db3b1b7892ac). The fix rejects `uses` values that are absolute paths or contain `..`, and verifies (via `filepath.Rel` after `filepath.Clean`) that the resolved target remains within the pipeline directory. ### Workarounds Only run `melange build` against configuration files from trusted sources. In CI systems that build user-supplied melange configs, gate builds behind manual review of `pipeline[].uses` values and reject any containing `..` or leading `/`. ### Credits melange thanks Oleh Konko ([@1seal](https://github.com/1seal) from [1seal.org](https://1seal.org/)) for discovering and reporting this issue.

Source published

23 Apr 2026 21:53:33 UTC

Source modified

25 Jun 2026 19:56:00 UTC

Observed here

24 Oct 2026 13:19:41 UTC

Source terms

GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0

Original source record · Cite this exact observation · Complete original publisher JSON

This view projects the publisher's source fields for reading; the original JSON retains additional fields and CVE enrichment containers. Attribution: osv · GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0. Source text is retained; field grouping and change labels are provided by ChangeIntel.

CVSS_V3 · CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N

Publisher rating · MODERATE