Vulnerability · Published Nov 3, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

CVE-2026-121546ruTorrent before 5.3.20 Path Traversal via datadir Plugin Symlink Following

Medium 5.9

In plain English

A medium-severity security flaw in ruTorrent from Novik. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.4% (higher than 35% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)5.9Medium

Exploit odds (30 days)0.4%top 65.4% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

ruTorrent before 5.3.20 contains a path traversal vulnerability in the datadir plugin that allows authenticated users to escape the topDirectory jail because correctDirectory() does not resolve symbolic links. Attackers can submit a datadir path through a symlink under their top directory to create directories and move torrent data to locations writable by the web server or rtorrent.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
Novik	ruTorrent	0 – before 5.3.20

Weakness: CWE-59 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L

References

GitHub Issue #3474 issue-tracking
https://github.com/Novik/ruTorrent product
Fix commit patch
https://github.com/Novik/ruTorrent/blob/v5.3.19/plugins/datadir/action.php#L60 technical-description
https://github.com/Novik/ruTorrent/blob/v5.3.19/php/settings.php#L526-L541 technical-description
VulnCheck Advisory: ruTorrent before 5.3.20 Path Traversal via datadir Plugin Symlink Following third-party-advisory