---
id: CVE-2023-23608
aliases:
  - GHSA-q764-g6fm-555v
  - PYSEC-2026-926
title: Path traversal in spotipy
summary: Path traversal in spotipy
severity: medium
cvss: 5.4
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L'
vendor: spotipy
product: spotipy
ecosystem: pip
affected:
  - spotipy < 2.22.1
patched:
  - spotipy 2.22.1
published: '2023-01-23'
updated: '2026-09-10'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-10T03:49:51.557617217Z'
source: OSV
sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-q764-g6fm-555v'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/security/advisories/GHSA-q764-g6fm-555v
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-23608'
  - url: 'https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy'
tags:
  - osv
  - pip
epss: 0.00658
epssPercentile: 0.49307
ingestedAt: '2026-07-08T18:25:52.114Z'
---

## Overview

### Summary
If a malicious URI is passed to the library, the library can be tricked into performing an operation on a different API endpoint than intended.

### Details
The [code Spotipy uses to parse URIs and URLs ](https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/blob/master/spotipy/client.py#L1942) accepts user data too liberally which allows a malicious user to insert arbitrary characters into the path that is used for API requests. Because it is possible to include `..`, an attacker can redirect for example a track lookup via `spotifyApi.track()` to an arbitrary API endpoint like playlists, but this is possible for other endpoints as well.

Before the security advisory feature was enabled on GitHub, I was already in contact with Stéphane Bruckert via e-mail, and he asked me to look into a potential fix. 

My recommendation is to perform stricter parsing of URLs and URIs, which I implemented in the patch included at the end of the report. If you prefer, I can also invite you to a private fork of the repository.

### Impact
The impact of this vulnerability depends heavily on what operations a client application performs when it handles a URI from a user and how it uses the responses it receives from the API.


## Affected packages

- `spotipy < 2.22.1`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `spotipy 2.22.1`