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.