Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-25152

Path Traversal in Linuxfoundation Backstage ≤ 1.13.11

Published
30 January 2026
Modified
19 February 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0039 31th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-25152 is a medium-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Linuxfoundation Backstage. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 31th 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 SC-39 (Process Isolation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Backstage is an open framework for building developer portals, and @backstage/plugin-techdocs-node provides common node.js functionalities for TechDocs. In versions of @backstage/plugin-techdocs-node prior to 1.13.11 and 1.14.1, a path traversal vulnerability in the TechDocs local generator allows attackers to read arbitrary…

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files from the host filesystem when Backstage is configured with `techdocs.generator.runIn: local`. When processing documentation from untrusted sources, symlinks within the docs directory are followed by MkDocs during the build process. File contents are embedded into generated HTML and exposed to users who can view the documentation. This vulnerability is fixed in` @backstage/plugin-techdocs-node` versions 1.13.11 and 1.14.1. Some workarounds are available. Switch to `runIn: docker` in `app-config.yaml` and/or restrict write access to TechDocs source repositories to trusted users only.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

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.
Why these techniques?

Path traversal in public-facing Backstage TechDocs generator directly enables exploitation of the web application for arbitrary local file reads.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-45816Same product: Linuxfoundation Backstage
CVE-2026-29185Same vendor: Linuxfoundation
CVE-2026-27969Same vendor: Linuxfoundation
CVE-2024-26150Same vendor: Linuxfoundation
CVE-2026-41491Same vendor: Linuxfoundation
CVE-2026-35167Same vendor: Linuxfoundation
CVE-2026-33211Same vendor: Linuxfoundation
CVE-2026-40923Same vendor: Linuxfoundation
CVE-2025-59352Same vendor: Linuxfoundation
CVE-2026-37531Same vendor: Linuxfoundation

Affected Assets

linuxfoundation
backstage
≤ 1.13.11 · 1.14.0 — 1.14.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-2 Flaw Remediation
  • SC-39 Process Isolation
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
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

prevent

Directly requires timely application of the vendor patch that eliminates the symlink path traversal in the local TechDocs generator.

prevent

Process isolation via containerization (runIn: docker) prevents the MkDocs build from following symlinks into the host filesystem.

prevent

Enforces access restrictions so that only trusted users can write documentation sources that are later processed by the vulnerable generator.

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.

detects

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