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CVE-2026-40576
Published:April 21, 2026
Updated:April 23, 2026
excel-mcp-server is a Model Context Protocol server for Excel file manipulation. A path traversal vulnerability exists in excel-mcp-server versions up to and including 0.1.7. When running in SSE or Streamable-HTTP transport mode (the documented way to use this server remotely), an unauthenticated attacker on the network can read, write, and overwrite arbitrary files on the host filesystem by supplying crafted filepath arguments to any of the 25 exposed MCP tool handlers. The server is intended to confine file operations to a directory set by the EXCEL_FILES_PATH environment variable. The function responsible for enforcing this boundary — get_excel_path() — fails to do so due to two independent flaws: it passes absolute paths through without any check, and it joins relative paths without resolving or validating the result. Combined with zero authentication on the default network-facing transport and a default bind address of 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces), this allows trivial remote exploitation. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.1.8.
Affected Packages
https://github.com/haris-musa/excel-mcp-server.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=v0.1.1 <v0.1.8
Fix Suggestion:
Update to version v0.1.8
excel-mcp-server (PYTHON):
Affected version(s) >=0.1.1 <0.1.8
Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 0.1.8
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CVSS v4
Base Score:
8.8
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Attack Requirements
NONE
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Vulnerable System Confidentiality
LOW
Vulnerable System Integrity
HIGH
Vulnerable System Availability
HIGH
Subsequent System Confidentiality
NONE
Subsequent System Integrity
NONE
Subsequent System Availability
NONE
CVSS v3
Base Score:
9.4
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Weakness Type (CWE)
Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
EPSS
Base Score:
0.05