Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-2251 is a critical-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Xerox Freeflow Core. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 32th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); 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-2026-2251 is an improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory vulnerability, classified under CWE-22 as path traversal, affecting Xerox FreeFlow Core. This flaw enables unauthorized path traversal that leads to remote code execution (RCE). The vulnerability impacts versions up to and including 8.0.7, with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating critical severity due to high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts.
An unauthenticated attacker with network access can exploit this vulnerability with low complexity and no user interaction required. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to traverse restricted directories and execute arbitrary code on the affected system, potentially leading to full compromise of the Xerox FreeFlow Core instance.
Xerox's security bulletin (Xerox-Security-Bulletin-026-005) and advisory recommend upgrading to FreeFlow Core version 8.1.0, available for download at https://www.support.xerox.com/en-us/product/core/downloads. Additional details are provided in the bulletin at https://securitydocs.business.xerox.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Xerox-Security-Bulletin-026-005-for-Xerox-Freeflow-Core.pdf.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-9014
Vulnerability Data
Improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory (Path Traversal) vulnerability in Xerox FreeFlow Core allows unauthorized path traversal leading to RCE. This issue affects Xerox FreeFlow Core versions up to and including 8.0.7. Please consider upgrading to FreeFlow…
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Core version 8.1.0 via the software available on - https://www.support.xerox.com/en-us/product/core/downloads https://www.support.xerox.com/en-us/product/core/downloads
- 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.