RabbitMQ is a messaging and streaming broker. Prior to versions 3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6, and 4.3.1, The trace consumer constructs the output path as filename:join(TraceDir, Name ++ ".log") where Name comes from PUT /api/traces/:vhost/:name. No safe relative path / traversal check is applied on the write side, while the read side (rabbit tracing files.erl) does call rabbit misc:safe relative path/1 , proving the omission is an oversight, not design. The .log suffix is forced and the endpoint requires administrator. A user with the administrator tag can write a .log-suffixed file to an arbitrary filesystem path writable by the rabbitmq user via the tracing plugin's name parameter, e.g. /etc/cron.d/x.log (if writable) or overwrite existing .log files outside the trace directory. Preconditions include rabbitmq tracing plugin enabled administrator tag Target path writable by rabbitmq OS user. This issue is fixed in versions 3.13.15, 4.0.20, 4.1.11, 4.2.6, and 4.3.1.