CVE-2021-47901
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedDirsearch 0.4.1 contains a CSV injection vulnerability when using the --csv-report flag that allows attackers to inject formulas through redirected endpoints. Attackers can craft malicious server redirects with comma-separated paths containing Excel formulas to manipulate the generated CSV report.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceDirsearch 0.4.1 is vulnerable to CSV injection via the --csv-report flag. When processing server redirects containing comma-separated paths with embedded Excel formula characters (=, +, -, @), the tool writes these directly to the CSV output without sanitization. When opened in spreadsheet applications, the formulas execute, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution on the victim's machine.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm Dirsearch versionRun 'dirsearch --version' or check the installed package version via pip (pip show dirsearch) or your package managerAffected if Version is 0.4.1 specifically, or falls within any 0.4.x release prior to fix
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Identify CSV report usageReview command history, scripts, or running processes for dirsearch invocations containing the '--csv-report' or '-r' flag (if csv-report is configured)Affected if The --csv-report flag was used to generate CSV output
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Locate generated CSV reportsFind CSV files created by dirsearch (typically named with timestamps or specified via --csv-target) and inspect them for formula charactersAffected if CSV files exist and contain unescaped characters: =, +, -, @, tab, CR, or LF at the start of any cell value
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Check server redirect handlingReview dirsearch output logs or captured network traffic for HTTP 3xx redirects containing comma-separated pathsAffected if Server redirects with paths containing special characters (=, +, -, @) were processed and written to CSV output
A user is affected if they ran Dirsearch version 0.4.1 with the --csv-report flag and the resulting CSV was later opened in a spreadsheet application without manual sanitization of formula characters.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataSanitize all CSV output by escaping or filtering formula-initiating characters (=, +, -, @, tab, CR, LF) before writing to the CSV report, or use a CSV library with built-in formula injection protection.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-47901 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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