Skip to content

Hugging Face Smolagents XPath injection vulnerability in the search_item_ctrl_f function

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Oct 22, 2025 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Oct 22, 2025

Package

pip smolagents (pip)

Affected versions

< 1.22.0

Patched versions

1.22.0

Description

Hugging Face Smolagents version 1.20.0 contains an XPath injection vulnerability in the search_item_ctrl_f function located in src/smolagents/vision_web_browser.py. The function constructs an XPath query by directly concatenating user-supplied input into the XPath expression without proper sanitization or escaping. This allows an attacker to inject malicious XPath syntax that can alter the intended query logic. The vulnerability enables attackers to bypass search filters, access unintended DOM elements, and disrupt web automation workflows. This can lead to information disclosure, manipulation of AI agent interactions, and compromise the reliability of automated web tasks. The issue is fixed in version 1.22.0.

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Oct 22, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Oct 22, 2025
Reviewed Oct 22, 2025
Last updated Oct 22, 2025

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Improper Neutralization of Data within XPath Expressions ('XPath Injection')

The product uses external input to dynamically construct an XPath expression used to retrieve data from an XML database, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes that input. This allows an attacker to control the structure of the query. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2025-11844

GHSA ID

GHSA-8mf9-rmgw-33qc

Source code

Loading Checking history
See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.