diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemimport/ItemImportServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemimport/ItemImportServiceImpl.java
index a9cfce2fb493..99cfb7b2b6c6 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemimport/ItemImportServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/itemimport/ItemImportServiceImpl.java
@@ -1037,6 +1037,34 @@ protected void addDCValue(Context c, Item i, String schema, Node n)
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Ensures a file path does not attempt to access files outside the designated parent directory.
+     *
+     * @param parentDir          The absolute path to the parent directory that should contain the file
+     * @param fileName           The name or path of the file to validate
+     * @throws IOException       If an error occurs while resolving canonical paths, or the file path attempts
+     *                           to access a location outside the parent directory
+     */
+    private void validateFilePath(String parentDir, String fileName) throws IOException {
+        File parent = new File(parentDir);
+        File file = new File(fileName);
+
+        // If the fileName is not an absolute path, we resolve it against the parentDir
+        if (!file.isAbsolute()) {
+            file = new File(parent, fileName);
+        }
+
+        String parentCanonicalPath = parent.getCanonicalPath();
+        String fileCanonicalPath = file.getCanonicalPath();
+
+        if (!fileCanonicalPath.startsWith(parentCanonicalPath)) {
+            log.error("File path outside of canonical root requested: fileCanonicalPath={} does not begin " +
+                "with parentCanonicalPath={}", fileCanonicalPath, parentCanonicalPath);
+            throw new IOException("Illegal file path '" + fileName + "' encountered. This references a path " +
+                "outside of the import package. Please see the system logs for more details.");
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Read the collections file inside the item directory. If there
      * is one and it is not empty return a list of collections in
@@ -1237,6 +1265,7 @@ protected List<String> processContentsFile(Context c, Item i, String path,
                             sDescription = sDescription.replaceFirst("description:", "");
                         }
 
+                        validateFilePath(path, sFilePath);
                         registerBitstream(c, i, iAssetstore, sFilePath, sBundle, sDescription);
                         logInfo("\tRegistering Bitstream: " + sFilePath
                             + "\tAssetstore: " + iAssetstore
@@ -1450,6 +1479,7 @@ protected void processContentFileEntry(Context c, Item i, String path,
             return;
         }
 
+        validateFilePath(path, fileName);
         String fullpath = path + File.separatorChar + fileName;
 
         // get an input stream
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/storage/bitstore/DSBitStoreService.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/storage/bitstore/DSBitStoreService.java
index 1fdf1e84e115..8d028d753b53 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/storage/bitstore/DSBitStoreService.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/storage/bitstore/DSBitStoreService.java
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.security.DigestInputStream;
 import java.security.MessageDigest;
 import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
@@ -248,7 +249,15 @@ protected File getFile(Bitstream bitstream) throws IOException {
             log.debug("Local filename for " + sInternalId + " is "
                           + bufFilename.toString());
         }
-        return new File(bufFilename.toString());
+        File bitstreamFile = new File(bufFilename.toString());
+        Path normalizedPath = bitstreamFile.toPath().normalize();
+        if (!normalizedPath.startsWith(baseDir.getAbsolutePath())) {
+            log.error("Bitstream path outside of assetstore root requested:" +
+                    "bitstream={}, path={}, assetstore={}",
+                    bitstream.getID(), normalizedPath, baseDir.getAbsolutePath());
+            throw new IOException("Illegal bitstream path constructed");
+        }
+        return bitstreamFile;
     }
 
     public boolean isRegisteredBitstream(String internalId) {