Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-28220

Deserialization in Wazuh 4.0.0 – 4.14.5

Public PoCDeserialization
Published
20 July 2026
Modified
29 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.4
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0040 33th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-28220 is a high-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability in Wazuh Wazuh. Its CVSS base score is 8.4 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 33th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); 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 SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response. Prior to version 4.14.5, issues in the Cluster Distributed API (DAPI) handling allow a cluster peer, or any actor able to authenticate to the cluster…

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channel using the shared cluster key, to make the master node deserialize an attacker-controlled callable and execute it under an attacker-controlled RBAC context. The cluster code in `framework/wazuh/core/cluster/common.py` deserializes JSON with `as_wazuh_object()`, which resolves any callable whose top-level package is wazuh or api (an overly broad allowlist controlled only by `ALLOWED_CALLABLES_PACKAGES`), and DAPI requests handled in framework/wazuh/core/cluster/dapi/dapi.py accept a client-supplied rbac_permissions value that `run_local()` applies as the global RBAC context, so supplying an rbac_mode of black causes authorization checks for expose_resources-protected functions to pass without any legitimate permission assignment. Combined, these allow privileged administrative actions on the master node such as arbitrary file writes under WAZUH_PATH, creation of new API users, and tampering with security.yaml, and can be chained into full manager compromise. This issue has been fixed in version 4.14.5.

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.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-25769Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2025-24016Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-44251Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-25772Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-34150Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-26204Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2025-62786Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-41499Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2025-59938Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2025-62788Same product: Wazuh Wazuh

Affected Assets

wazuh
wazuh
4.0.0 — 4.14.5

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can uncover deserialization flaws before deployment.

Input validation directly stops deserialization of untrusted data by ensuring inputs are valid before processing.

Engineering principles such as safe deserialization and input sanitization structurally prevent the weakness from being introduced.

Integrity verification tools can detect malformed or tampered serialized data after the fact.

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 none match
prevents

PR.PS-02 addresses only post-deployment updates/patching and cannot prevent introduction of unsafe deserialization code, yet it can remediate some instances when the flaw exists in outdated libraries or components.

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 includes validation of deserialization routines and the use of untrusted data, reducing the likelihood that unsafe object reconstruction will be deployed.

prevents

Requiring vetted libraries, regular updates and SAST before release reduces the likelihood that deserialization logic will accept and act on attacker-controlled serialized objects.

finds

Regular scanning of third-party libraries and timely patching reduce the likelihood that unsafe deserialization vulnerabilities remain active.

none

Mandatory malware scanning of data received over networks or storage media intercepts malicious serialized payloads before they are deserialized by the target application.

References