diff --git a/gh-pages-template/index.html b/gh-pages-template/index.html
index 4a150a2afe4..4963070625a 100644
--- a/gh-pages-template/index.html
+++ b/gh-pages-template/index.html
@@ -42,7 +42,8 @@
                             </select>
                         </div>
                         <div class="col-12 col-md-6 col-lg-5">
-                            <input type="text" class="form-control rounded-0" placeholder="Search" id="search_term">
+                            <input type="text" class="form-control rounded-0" placeholder="Search" id="search_term"
+                                   aria-label="Search">
                         </div>
                         <button type="button" class="btn btn-warning col-12 col-md-auto rounded-0" onclick="run_search()">
                             <i class="fa-fw fas fa-search"></i>Search</button>
diff --git a/src/queue_eligibility.py b/src/queue_eligibility.py
index 8c21dd5652d..b2c40a7db69 100644
--- a/src/queue_eligibility.py
+++ b/src/queue_eligibility.py
@@ -52,7 +52,48 @@ def normalize_user_id(user_id: object) -> str:
     return str(user_id).strip()
 
 
-def load_auto_approved_user_ids(auto_approved_users_file: Path) -> frozenset[str]:
+def resolve_auto_approved_users_file(
+        auto_approved_users_file: Path,
+        base_dir: Path | None = None,
+) -> Path:
+    """
+    Resolve an auto-approved users file path within the allowed base directory.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    auto_approved_users_file : pathlib.Path
+        Candidate JSON file path.
+    base_dir : pathlib.Path, optional
+        Directory that may contain the allowlist file.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    pathlib.Path
+        Canonical allowlist file path.
+
+    Raises
+    ------
+    ValueError
+        If the resolved path escapes the allowed base directory.
+    """
+    allowed_base_dir = (Path.cwd() if base_dir is None else base_dir).resolve()
+    candidate_file = auto_approved_users_file
+    if not candidate_file.is_absolute():
+        candidate_file = allowed_base_dir / candidate_file
+
+    resolved_file = candidate_file.resolve()
+    try:
+        resolved_file.relative_to(allowed_base_dir)
+    except ValueError as error:
+        raise ValueError('auto-approved users file must be inside the working directory') from error
+
+    return resolved_file
+
+
+def load_auto_approved_user_ids(
+        auto_approved_users_file: Path,
+        base_dir: Path | None = None,
+) -> frozenset[str]:
     """
     Load auto-approved GitHub user ids from a JSON file.
 
@@ -60,6 +101,8 @@ def load_auto_approved_user_ids(auto_approved_users_file: Path) -> frozenset[str
     ----------
     auto_approved_users_file : pathlib.Path
         JSON file containing auto-approved user objects.
+    base_dir : pathlib.Path, optional
+        Directory that may contain the allowlist file.
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -67,9 +110,13 @@ def load_auto_approved_user_ids(auto_approved_users_file: Path) -> frozenset[str
         Normalized GitHub user ids.
     """
     try:
-        with auto_approved_users_file.open(encoding='utf-8') as auto_approved_users_f:
+        safe_auto_approved_users_file = resolve_auto_approved_users_file(
+            auto_approved_users_file=auto_approved_users_file,
+            base_dir=base_dir,
+        )
+        with safe_auto_approved_users_file.open(encoding='utf-8') as auto_approved_users_f:
             auto_approved_users = json.load(auto_approved_users_f)
-    except (OSError, json.JSONDecodeError):
+    except (OSError, ValueError):
         return frozenset()
 
     if not isinstance(auto_approved_users, list):
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_queue_eligibility.py b/tests/unit/test_queue_eligibility.py
index 37d5cdf5e3c..5734708b8d6 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_queue_eligibility.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_queue_eligibility.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ def test_load_auto_approved_user_ids_loads_user_ids(tmp_path):
 
     auto_approved_user_ids = queue_eligibility.load_auto_approved_user_ids(
         auto_approved_users_file=auto_approved_users_file,
+        base_dir=tmp_path,
     )
 
     assert auto_approved_user_ids == frozenset({'42013603', '88998541'})
@@ -61,6 +62,7 @@ def test_load_auto_approved_user_ids_ignores_malformed_entries(tmp_path):
 
     auto_approved_user_ids = queue_eligibility.load_auto_approved_user_ids(
         auto_approved_users_file=auto_approved_users_file,
+        base_dir=tmp_path,
     )
 
     assert auto_approved_user_ids == frozenset({'1234'})
@@ -71,8 +73,14 @@ def test_load_auto_approved_user_ids_fails_closed_for_missing_or_bad_file(tmp_pa
     bad_file = tmp_path / 'bad.json'
     bad_file.write_text('{', encoding='utf-8')
 
-    assert queue_eligibility.load_auto_approved_user_ids(auto_approved_users_file=missing_file) == frozenset()
-    assert queue_eligibility.load_auto_approved_user_ids(auto_approved_users_file=bad_file) == frozenset()
+    assert queue_eligibility.load_auto_approved_user_ids(
+        auto_approved_users_file=missing_file,
+        base_dir=tmp_path,
+    ) == frozenset()
+    assert queue_eligibility.load_auto_approved_user_ids(
+        auto_approved_users_file=bad_file,
+        base_dir=tmp_path,
+    ) == frozenset()
 
 
 def test_load_auto_approved_user_ids_fails_closed_for_non_list_json(tmp_path):
@@ -82,6 +90,25 @@ def test_load_auto_approved_user_ids_fails_closed_for_non_list_json(tmp_path):
 
     auto_approved_user_ids = queue_eligibility.load_auto_approved_user_ids(
         auto_approved_users_file=auto_approved_users_file,
+        base_dir=tmp_path,
+    )
+
+    assert auto_approved_user_ids == frozenset()
+
+
+def test_load_auto_approved_user_ids_rejects_path_outside_base_dir(tmp_path):
+    base_dir = tmp_path / 'base'
+    base_dir.mkdir()
+    outside_file = write_auto_approved_users_file(tmp_path, [
+        {
+            'user_id': 42013603,
+            'username': 'ReenigneArcher',
+        },
+    ])
+
+    auto_approved_user_ids = queue_eligibility.load_auto_approved_user_ids(
+        auto_approved_users_file=Path('..') / outside_file.name,
+        base_dir=base_dir,
     )
 
     assert auto_approved_user_ids == frozenset()
@@ -213,10 +240,11 @@ def test_main_writes_queue_eligible_result(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
     ])
     output_file = tmp_path / 'github_output'
     monkeypatch.setenv('GITHUB_OUTPUT', str(output_file))
+    monkeypatch.chdir(tmp_path)
     monkeypatch.setattr(sys, 'argv', [
         'queue_eligibility',
         '--auto-approved-users-file',
-        str(auto_approved_users_file),
+        auto_approved_users_file.name,
         '--user-id',
         '42013603',
     ])