Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-69194 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Gnu Wget2. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 49% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2025-69194 is a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) in GNU Wget2 when processing Metalink documents. The application fails to properly validate file paths specified in Metalink <file name> elements, enabling arbitrary file writes to unintended locations on the filesystem. Published on 2026-01-09, this issue carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating high severity due to its potential for confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts.
A remote attacker without privileges can exploit this by tricking a user into using Wget2 to download or process a maliciously crafted Metalink document, which requires user interaction such as clicking a link or running a command. Upon processing, the invalid paths allow the attacker to overwrite or create files outside the intended download directory, resulting in data loss or enabling further system compromise depending on the targeted locations and permissions.
Mitigation details are provided in the referenced Red Hat security advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-69194 and Bugzilla entry at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2425773. Security practitioners should consult these for patch availability, version-specific guidance, and any recommended workarounds.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-1781
Vulnerability Data
A security issue was discovered in GNU Wget2 when handling Metalink documents. The application fails to properly validate file paths provided in Metalink <file name> elements. An attacker can abuse this behavior to write files to unintended locations on the…
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system. This can lead to data loss or potentially allow further compromise of the user’s environment.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.3.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.
Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.
Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.
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.
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 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.
Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.
Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.
Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.
Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.
Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.