consciousness-explorer / sublinear-time-solver MCP export_state has an arbitrary file write
Impact
An arbitrary file write vulnerability (CWE-73, External Control of File Name or Path) exists in the consciousness-explorer component of sublinear-time-solver. The MCP export_state (and import_state) tool accepted a user-supplied filepath argument and passed it directly to fs.writeFileSync / fs.readFileSync without constraining the destination or rejecting path traversal. An attacker able to invoke the MCP tool could write or overwrite any file accessible to the server process (e.g. ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, application files), leading to integrity loss and potential service disruption.
The same sink class was present in the main solver MCP server (saveVectorToFile / loadVectorFromFile).
Affected versions
consciousness-explorer< 1.1.2sublinear-time-solver< 1.6.0sublinear(crates.io) < 0.2.0
Patches
consciousness-explorer@1.1.2sublinear-time-solver@1.6.0sublinear@0.2.0
State/vector files are now confined to a dedicated directory (overridable via $CONSCIOUSNESS_EXPLORER_STATE_DIR / $SUBLINEAR_SOLVER_VECTOR_DIR), a basename-only contract is enforced (rejecting separators, .., NUL/control chars, hidden files, and Windows reserved names), and files are opened with O_NOFOLLOW | O_CLOEXEC mode 0o600. Covered by 14 regression tests in tests/consciousness/safe-path.test.mjs.
Breaking change: callers must now pass a basename, not an absolute path.
Workarounds
Do not expose the MCP server to untrusted clients; restrict export_state to trusted local users; run the server under a low-privilege account with a restricted working directory.
Affected software
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| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm package | consciousness-explorer | < 1.1.2 | 1.1.2 |
| npm package | sublinear-time-solver | < 1.6.0 | 1.6.0 |
References
- https://github.com/ruvnet/sublinear-time-solver/security/advisories/GHSA-xc9g-j69q-37xw
- https://github.com/BruceJqs/public_exp/issues/32
- https://github.com/ruvnet/sublinear-time-solver/issues/19
- https://github.com/ruvnet/sublinear-time-solver/pull/20
- https://github.com/ruvnet/sublinear-time-solver/commit/a701296e363192be863e79d788fa268095e3d229
- https://github.com/ruvnet/sublinear-time-solver/commit/ea9a212b69e4449ec443fe088a7aec7546f70b4a
- https://github.com/ruvnet/sublinear-time-solver
- https://github.com/ruvnet/sublinear-time-solver/releases/tag/v1.6.0
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-73- Platform
- npm
- Package
consciousness-explorer, sublinear-time-solver- Disclosed
- 25.08.2026
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 10:22
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-xc9g-j69q-37xw - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: consciousness-explorer
All published vulnerabilities of this package (npm package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
This is the only known vulnerability of this package.
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