Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-24848

Path Traversal in Open-Emr Openemr ≤ 7.0.4

Public PoCPath Traversal
Published
03 March 2026
Modified
04 March 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 8.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.065 93th percentile
Risk Priority 46 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-24848 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Open-Emr Openemr. Its CVSS base score is 8.7 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 7% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

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-2026-24848 is a critical vulnerability in OpenEMR, a free and open source electronic health records and medical practice management application. It affects versions 7.0.4 and earlier, specifically in the disposeDocument() method of the EtherFaxActions.php component. This flaw enables authenticated users to write arbitrary content to arbitrary locations on the server filesystem, stemming from CWE-22 (Path Traversal). The issue carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.9 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating critical severity due to its potential for widespread impact.

An attacker with authenticated access at low privilege levels (PR:L) can exploit this vulnerability remotely (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction required (UI:N). Successful exploitation allows writing files to sensitive server locations, enabling the upload of malicious PHP web shells. This leads to remote code execution (RCE), with a changed scope (S:C) resulting in high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Mitigation details are available in the GitHub Security Advisory at https://github.com/openemr/openemr/security/advisories/GHSA-5vp5-4rm6-h4c9, published on 2026-03-03. Security practitioners should consult this advisory for patching instructions and remediation steps specific to affected OpenEMR deployments.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

OpenEMR is a free and open source electronic health records and medical practice management application. In 7.0.4 and earlier, the disposeDocument() method in EtherFaxActions.php allows authenticated users to write arbitrary content to arbitrary locations on the server filesystem. This vulnerability…

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can be exploited to achieve Remote Code Execution (RCE) by uploading malicious PHP web shells.

CWE(s)

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.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-25928Same product: Open-Emr Openemr
CVE-2023-22973Same product: Open-Emr Openemr
CVE-2026-24849Same product: Open-Emr Openemr
CVE-2026-24488Same product: Open-Emr Openemr
CVE-2019-14530Same product: Open-Emr Openemr
CVE-2025-29789Same product: Open-Emr Openemr
CVE-2025-21048Shared CWE-22
CVE-2026-23939Shared CWE-22
CVE-2024-7145Shared CWE-22
CVE-2023-42225Shared CWE-22

Affected Assets

open-emr
openemr
≤ 7.0.4

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

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.

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.

finds

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

prevents

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

prevents

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

prevents

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

prevents

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

mitigates

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

References