High advisory for The File Force Download module for Drupa

Advisory overview

The File Force Download module for Drupal 7 implements hook_file_download() to add a Content-Disposition header when a file URL carries the download query parameter. In Drupal 7, returning a non-empty header array from that hook is itself a grant of access to the file. In versions 7.1.0 through 7.1.2, the module only delegated to other modules' hook_file_download() implementations when the file was in the private scheme. For every other scheme it returned its headers without any check. An unauthenticated visitor who appended download=1 to the URL of a file in the temporary:// scheme, or in a stream wrapper supplied by another module, could retrieve the file, overriding the access checks that would otherwise have applied. Files in the public and private schemes are not affected.

Related references

• https://d7es.tag1.com/security-advisories/file-force-download-critical-access-bypass
• https://www.herodevs.com/vulnerability-directory/cve-2026-110176