danny-avila/LibreChat · error

Invalid file path

Error message

Invalid file path

What it means

Thrown by deleteFirebaseFile as a security authorization check: after extracting the storage path from the Firebase URL via extractFirebaseFilePath, it verifies that the path contains the requesting user's ID. If the extracted path does not include req.user.id, the deletion is refused to prevent one user from deleting another user's files. This is a path-level ownership guard, not a filesystem path validity check.

Source

Thrown at api/server/services/Files/Firebase/crud.js:192

/**
 * Deletes a file from Firebase storage. This function determines the filepath from the
 * Firebase storage URL via regex for deletion. Validated by the user's ID.
 *
 * @param {ServerRequest} req - The request object from Express.
 * It should contain a `user` object with an `id` property.
 * @param {MongoFile} file - The file object to be deleted.
 *
 * @returns {Promise<void>}
 *          A promise that resolves when the file has been successfully deleted from Firebase storage.
 *          Throws an error if there is an issue with deletion.
 */
const deleteFirebaseFile = async (req, file) => {
  await deleteRagFile({ userId: req.user.id, file });

  const fileName = extractFirebaseFilePath(file.filepath);
  if (!fileName.includes(req.user.id)) {
    throw new Error('Invalid file path');
  }
  try {
    await deleteFile('', fileName);
  } catch (error) {
    logger.error('Error deleting file from Firebase:', error);
    if (error.code === 'storage/object-not-found') {
      return;
    }
    throw error;
  }
};

/**
 * Uploads a file to Firebase Storage.
 *
 * @param {Object} params - The params object.
 * @param {ServerRequest} params.req - The request object from Express. It should have a `user` property with an `id`
 *                       representing the user.

View on GitHub (pinned to 5ff282f900)

Solutions

1. Inspect file.filepath in the database to confirm it is a valid Firebase Storage URL containing the user's ID in its object path.
2. If the file path is legitimately structured differently (e.g., shared resources), add an explicit authorization path or admin override rather than bypassing this check.
3. If the filepath is empty or stale, remove the database record directly rather than attempting deletion via this function.
4. Ensure new file uploads always use a user-scoped basePath (e.g., images/{userId}/) so the extracted path contains the user ID.

const fileName = extractFirebaseFilePath(file.filepath);
if (!fileName || !fileName.includes(req.user.id)) {
  // skip deletion or log a security warning
  return;
}

function isFileOwnedByUser(filepath: string, userId: string): boolean {
  const extracted = extractFirebaseFilePath(filepath);
  return extracted.length > 0 && extracted.includes(userId);
}

try {
  await deleteFirebaseFile(req, file);
} catch (error) {
  if (error.message === 'Invalid file path') {
    // ownership mismatch — log security event, do not delete
    logger.warn(`Ownership mismatch: file ${file.file_id} does not belong to user ${req.user.id}`);
    return;
  }
  throw error;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling deleteFirebaseFile(req, file) where file.filepath is a Firebase Storage download URL whose decoded object path does not contain req.user.id. This can happen if file.filepath is malformed, empty, belongs to a different user, or references a shared/system resource path that was not created under a user-specific basePath.

Common situations: A file was created by an older version of the app that used a different URL structure or basePath convention. Or file.filepath was corrupted or manually edited in the database. Or the file belongs to a shared/agent context where the path structure does not include the individual user ID.

Related errors

• Invalid file path
• User ID not found in blob path
• This tool is only available for agents.
• This tool is only available for agents.
• You no longer have access to subagent ${agentId}.

AI-assisted analysis of danny-avila/LibreChat@5ff282f900 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/866bd4d5f39d3719. Report an issue: GitHub.