Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-30816

Tp-Link Archer Ax53 Firmware ≤ 1.7.1

Published
08 April 2026
Modified
25 July 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 6.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/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 0.0029 21th percentile
Risk Priority 25 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-30816 is a medium-severity External Control of System or Configuration Setting (CWE-15) vulnerability in Tp-Link Archer Ax53 Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 6.8 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable (T1574.007); ranked at the 21th 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 AC-4 (Information Flow Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A02:2025 Security MisconfigurationA05:2025 Injection

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An external control of configuration vulnerability in the OpenVPN module of TP-Link AX53 v1.0 allows an authenticated adjacent attacker to read arbitrary file when a malicious configuration file is processed. Successful exploitation may allow unauthorized access to arbitrary files on…

more

the device, potentially exposing sensitive information.This issue affects AX53 v1.0: before 1.7.1 Build 20260213.

CWE(s)
CWE-15CWE-610

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1574.007 Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking environment variables used to load libraries.
attack.mitre.org →
T1547.004 Winlogon Helper DLL Persistence
Adversaries may abuse features of Winlogon to execute DLLs and/or executables when a user logs in.
attack.mitre.org →
T1547.014 Active Setup Persistence
Adversaries may achieve persistence by adding a Registry key to the Active Setup of the local machine.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574 Hijack Execution Flow Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the way operating systems run programs.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574.006 Dynamic Linker Hijacking Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking environment variables the dynamic linker uses to load shared libraries.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574.012 COR_PROFILER Stealth
Adversaries may leverage the COR_PROFILER environment variable to hijack the execution flow of programs that load the .
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-30817Same product: Tp-Link Archer Ax53
CVE-2026-30818Same product: Tp-Link Archer Ax53
CVE-2025-62405Same product: Tp-Link Archer Ax53
CVE-2025-58455Same product: Tp-Link Archer Ax53
CVE-2025-15608Same product: Tp-Link Archer Ax53
CVE-2025-62673Same product: Tp-Link Archer Ax53
CVE-2025-58077Same product: Tp-Link Archer Ax53
CVE-2025-59487Same product: Tp-Link Archer Ax53
CVE-2025-61983Same product: Tp-Link Archer Ax53
CVE-2026-30815Same product: Tp-Link Archer Ax53

Affected Assets

tp-link
archer ax53 firmware
≤ 1.7.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 7 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

Enforces approved authorizations for logical access to configuration resources so external parties cannot alter them.

CM-5 Access Restrictions for Change good match

Enforces documented access restrictions on all changes to system configuration, directly blocking unauthorized external control of settings.

AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement good match

Controls information flow between security domains, blocking resolution of external references to unintended spheres.

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

Limits privileges to the minimum needed, reducing the set of users who can externally modify configuration.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Validates information inputs, directly stopping externally controlled names or references from being accepted.

SC-7 Boundary Protection partial match

Monitors and controls boundary communications, limiting the ability of external references to reach protected resources.

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-01 mostly match
prevents

Hardened configuration baselines and change controls directly limit external manipulation of settings.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure development practices directly require input validation and reference sanitization that prevent externally-controlled resource references.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of software and data flows can detect anomalous external resource accesses that result from this weakness.

ID.RA-07 partial match
prevents

Formal change and exception management catches externally driven configuration alterations.

PR.AA-05 partial match
prevents

Least-privilege access policies reduce unauthorized external modification of configuration values.

PR.IR-01 partial match
prevents

Network segmentation and access controls limit the blast radius when an external reference escapes its intended sphere.

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.

A.8.9 Configuration management full match
degrades

Configuration management directly prevents external tampering with system settings.

A.5.18 Access rights mostly match
prevents

Access rights assignment determines who may change system settings.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights mostly match
prevents

Privileged access rights reduce the number of users who can alter configuration.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect instances of the weakness but does not prevent it at design or coding time.

A.8.3 Information access restriction mostly match
prevents

Information access restriction limits who can view or modify configuration data.

A.8.32 Change management mostly match
prevents

Change management enforces controlled, authorized modifications to settings.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248577 OL 8 must enable kernel parameters to enforce Discretionary Access Control (DAC) on symlinks. prevents CWE-610

References