Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-41266

Path Traversal in Qlik Sense august_2022 … november_2022

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedRansomware-linkedPath Traversal
Published
29 August 2023
Modified
05 August 2026
KEV Added
07 December 2023
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.2
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.82 99.6th percentile
Risk Priority 87 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-41266 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Qlik Qlik Sense. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 0.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

A path traversal vulnerability exists in Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows in versions May 2023 Patch 3 and earlier, February 2023 Patch 7 and earlier, November 2022 Patch 10 and earlier, and August 2022 Patch 12 and earlier. The flaw, tracked as CWE-22, permits an unauthenticated remote attacker to generate an anonymous session and issue HTTP requests against otherwise unauthorized endpoints, carrying a CVSS 3.1 score of 8.2.

An unauthenticated attacker can exploit the issue over the network without user interaction to obtain a session token and reach internal resources that should be restricted, resulting in high confidentiality impact and limited integrity exposure.

Vendor advisories from Qlik direct customers to apply the fixes released in August 2023 IR, May 2023 Patch 4, February 2023 Patch 8, November 2022 Patch 11, and August 2022 Patch 13; the same updates are referenced in the associated release notes.

The vulnerability appears in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and its EPSS score has reached a peak of 0.9429 with a current value of 0.9422, indicating sustained exploitation interest following disclosure.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A path traversal vulnerability found in Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows for versions May 2023 Patch 3 and earlier, February 2023 Patch 7 and earlier, November 2022 Patch 10 and earlier, and August 2022 Patch 12 and earlier allows an…

more

unauthenticated remote attacker to generate an anonymous session. This allows them to transmit HTTP requests to unauthorized endpoints. This is fixed in August 2023 IR, May 2023 Patch 4, February 2023 Patch 8, November 2022 Patch 11, and August 2022 Patch 13.

CWE(s)
CWE-22
KEV Date Added
07 December 2023

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-1708Shared CWE-22both on KEV
CVE-2021-42013Shared CWE-22both on KEV
CVE-2019-7194Shared CWE-22both on KEV
CVE-2024-41713Shared CWE-22both on KEV
CVE-2021-20123Shared CWE-22both on KEV
CVE-2019-16278Shared CWE-22both on KEV
CVE-2019-5418Shared CWE-22both on KEV
CVE-2017-12637Shared CWE-22both on KEV
CVE-2016-3976Shared CWE-22both on KEV
CVE-2022-29464Shared CWE-22both on KEV

Affected Assets

qlik
qlik sense
august_2022, february_2023, may_2023, november_2022

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.3.2

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

SI-10 Information Input Validation
addresses: CWE-22

Validates pathnames and filenames to prevent traversal outside intended directories.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.

PR.AA-05 none match
prevents

PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.

A.8.3 Information access restriction partial match
mitigates

Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.

References