RUSTSEC-2021-0126: RustEmbed generated `get` method allows for directory traversal when reading files from disk

What to do

1. See which version you have: cargo tree -i rust-embed (it also shows which of your dependencies pulls it in).
2. Update within your version requirement: cargo update -p rust-embed. If the fix is a newer major or minor than your requirement allows, raise it in Cargo.toml (for example rust-embed = "6.3.0") or update the dependency that pulls it in.
3. Check again with cargo audit, or paste your Cargo.lock into our Cargo.toml checker.

Details from the advisory

When running in debug mode and the debug-embed (off by default) feature is not enabled, the generated get method does not check that the input path is a child of the folder given.

This allows attackers to read arbitrary files in the file system if they have control over the filename given. The following code will print the contents of your /etc/passwd if adjusted with a correct number of ../s depending on where it is run from.

#[derive(rust_embed::RustEmbed)]
#[folder = "src/"]
pub struct Asset;

fn main() {
    let d = Asset::get("../../../etc/passwd").unwrap().data;
    println!("{}", String::from_utf8_lossy(&d));
}

The flaw was corrected by canonicalizing the input filename and ensuring that it starts with the canonicalized folder path.

References

• Package: crates.io/crates/rust-embed
• Advisory: rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2021-0126.html
• Report: github.com/pyros2097/rust-embed/issues/159

From the RustSec Advisory Database (CC0-1.0) via the OSV export, downloaded Oct 24, 2026. Severity score computed from the published CVSS vector.