Mage AI does not confine the paths accepted by its browser-items API to the project directory. BrowserItemResource in mageai/api/resources/BrowserItemResource.py passes a caller-supplied path to the filesystem read and write helpers without calling the containment helper that the sibling FileContentResource and FileResource classes both use, so the resource contains no such call while those two contain several. A user holding the Viewer role, which grants read access within the project and nothing outside it, can therefore read any file the server process can read by supplying an absolute path. The permission model that would otherwise separate roles is not consulted for this route in the default configuration, because the setting that enables it defaults to false. Callers holding the Editor role additionally write through the same unconfined path, though that role is already able to execute code by design, so the boundary crossed by this flaw is the read available to the Viewer role.

A vulnerability was found in Mage AI 0.9.75. It has been classified as problematic. This affects an unknown part. The manipulation leads to insecure default initialization of resource. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. The complexity of an attack is rather high. The exploitability is told to be difficult. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. The real existence of this vulnerability is still doubted at the moment. After 7 months of repeated follow-ups by the researcher, Mage AI has decided to not accept this issue as a valid security vulnerability and has confirmed that they will not be addressing it.