CVE-2026-35409: Directus SSRF Protection Bypass Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-wv3h-5fx7-966h
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CVSS 7.7
CWE-20 CWE-918
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-35409 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.7) ssrf protection bypass vulnerability (CWE-20: Improper Input Validation) affecting Directus libraries in the npm ecosystem. The issue involves ssrf protection bypass via ipv4-mapped ipv6 addresses in file import. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 11.16.0.

CVE-2026-35409 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-35409
GHSA Identifier GHSA-wv3h-5fx7-966h
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.7
CWE Classification CWE-20: Improper Input Validation
Affected Product Directus
Package Ecosystem npm
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.7

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required Low (PR:L)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Changed (S:C)
Confidentiality High (C:H)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability None (A:N)

How to Fix CVE-2026-35409

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Directus dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

directus fixed: 11.16.0 
npm install directus@11.16.0
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

npm ls directus

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Node.js application is affected by CVE-2026-35409, inspect your project dependencies using npm:

npm ls directus

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Directus in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 11.16.0), your application is affected.

Note: The npm ls directus command inspects dependencies declared in your package.json and lockfile; it does not perform automated runtime dynamic scanning.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-20: Improper Input Validation, where the product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly. In Directus, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

### Summary A Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) protection bypass has been identified and fixed in Directus. The IP address validation mechanism used to block requests to local and private networks could be circumvented using IPv4-Mapped IPv6 address notation. ### Details Directus implements an IP deny-list to prevent server-side requests to internal/private network ranges. The validation logic failed to normalize IPv4-Mapped IPv6 addresses (e.g., the IPv6 representation of `127.0.0.1`) before checking them against the deny-list. Because the deny-list check did not recognize these mapped addresses as equivalent to their IPv4 counterparts, an attacker could bypass the restriction while the underlying HTTP client and operating system still resolved and connected to the intended private target. This has been fixed by adding a normalization step that converts IPv4-Mapped IPv6 addresses to their canonical IPv4 form prior to validation. ### Impact An authenticated user (or an unauthenticated user if public file-import permissions are enabled) could exploit this bypass to perform SSRF attacks against internal services on the same host (databases, caches, internal APIs) or cloud instance metadata endpoints (e.g., AWS/GCP/Azure IMDS).

CVE-2026-35409 Affected Directus Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
11.16.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
directus
npm/directus
npm
< 11.16.0
11.16.0

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/directus/directus/security/advisories/GHSA-wv3h-5fx7-966h
NVD — CVE-2026-35409 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-35409
Directus Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/directus/directus

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-35409?
CVE-2026-35409 is a security vulnerability in Directus involving SSRF Protection Bypass via IPv4-Mapped IPv6 Addresses in File Import under CWE-20: Improper Input Validation.
Which Directus versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 11.16.0 across affected packages: directus.
What version fixes CVE-2026-35409?
Upgrading to 11.16.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is directus affected?
Yes, directus is affected in releases prior to 11.16.0. Upgrade your dependency to 11.16.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-35409?
CVE-2026-35409 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.7 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-35409?
CVE-2026-35409 is classified under CWE-20: Improper Input Validation (The product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly.).
How can I check npm dependencies for CVE-2026-35409?
Run the dependency tree command: 'npm ls directus'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-wv3h-5fx7-966h",
  "modified" : "2026-04-07T14:20:08Z",
  "published" : "2026-04-04T06:10:53Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-35409" ],
  "summary" : "Directus: SSRF Protection Bypass via IPv4-Mapped IPv6 Addresses in File Import",
  "details" : "### Summary\nA Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) protection bypass has been identified and fixed in Directus. The IP address validation mechanism used to block requests to local and private networks could be circumvented using IPv4-Mapped IPv6 address notation.\n\n### Details\nDirectus implements an IP deny-list to prevent server-side requests to internal/private network ranges. The validation logic failed to normalize IPv4-Mapped IPv6 addresses (e.g., the IPv6 representation of `127.0.0.1`) before checking them against the deny-list. Because the deny-list check did not recognize these mapped addresses as equivalent to their IPv4 counterparts, an attacker could bypass the restriction while the underlying HTTP client and operating system still resolved and connected to the intended private target.\n\nThis has been fixed by adding a normalization step that converts IPv4-Mapped IPv6 addresses to their canonical IPv4 form prior to validation.\n\n### Impact\nAn authenticated user (or an unauthenticated user if public file-import permissions are enabled) could exploit this bypass to perform SSRF attacks against internal services on the same host (databases, caches, internal APIs) or cloud instance metadata endpoints (e.g., AWS/GCP/Azure IMDS).",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "directus"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "11.16.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/directus/directus/security/advisories/GHSA-wv3h-5fx7-966h"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-35409"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/directus/directus"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-20", "CWE-918" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-04-04T06:10:53Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-04-06T22:16:21Z"
  }
}