CVE-2026-44301: gohugo hugo Path Traversal

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-44301 is a high (CVSS 8.1) Path Traversal vulnerability in gohugo hugo. EPSS estimates a 0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 35.7% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 12-05-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 13-05-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Hugo is a static site generator. From 0.43 to before 0.161.0, when building a Hugo site that uses Node-based asset pipelines (PostCSS, Babel, TailwindCSS), Hugo invoked the configured Node tools without restrictions on file system access. As a result, executing hugo against an untrusted site could allow code running through these tools to read or write files outside the project's working directory. Users who do not use PostCSS, Babel, or TailwindCSS, or who only build trusted sites, are not affected. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.161.0.

• CWE-22Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.