Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-30874

LPE in Openwrt ≤ 24.10.6

Published
19 March 2026
Modified
23 March 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 1.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/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 0.0030 22th percentile
Risk Priority 15 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-30874 is a low-severity Injection (CWE-74) vulnerability in Openwrt Openwrt. Its CVSS base score is 1.8 (Low).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 22th 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-2 (Account Management) and AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) — 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-2026-30874 is a vulnerability in the OpenWrt Project, a Linux operating system targeting embedded devices, affecting versions prior to 24.10.6. The issue lies in the hotplug_call function, which is designed to filter out sensitive environment variables like PATH when executing hotplug scripts in /etc/hotplug.d. Due to a bug using strcmp instead of strncmp, the filter compares the full environment string (e.g., PATH=/some/value) against the literal "PATH", causing the match to always fail. As a result, the PATH variable is not excluded, allowing injection of an arbitrary PATH that influences binary execution by procd-invoked scripts running with elevated privileges. The vulnerability is rated 7.8 on the CVSS 3.1 scale (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and maps to CWEs 74, 187, and 269.

A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability by crafting a malicious PATH environment variable. When procd invokes hotplug scripts under elevated privileges, the injected PATH determines which binaries are executed, enabling arbitrary code execution and potential privilege escalation.

The vulnerability has been fixed in OpenWrt version 24.10.6. Mitigation involves upgrading to this version or later. Details are provided in the OpenWrt GitHub security advisory at https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/security/advisories/GHSA-jw28-hxcm-j934 and the patching commit in procd at https://github.com/openwrt/procd/commit/e08cdc8562f55b9ac228a21f3f7605a18c522b81.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

OpenWrt Project is a Linux operating system targeting embedded devices. In versions prior to 24.10.6, a vulnerability in the hotplug_call function allows an attacker to bypass environment variable filtering and inject an arbitrary PATH variable, potentially leading to privilege escalation.…

more

The function is intended to filter out sensitive environment variables like PATH when executing hotplug scripts in /etc/hotplug.d, but a bug using strcmp instead of strncmp causes the filter to compare the full environment string (e.g., PATH=/some/value) against the literal "PATH", so the match always fails. As a result, the PATH variable is never excluded, enabling an attacker to control which binaries are executed by procd-invoked scripts running with elevated privileges. This issue has been fixed in version 24.10.6.

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.
T1221 Template Injection Stealth
Adversaries may create or modify references in user document templates to conceal malicious code or force authentication attempts.
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
T1659 Content Injection Initial Access
Adversaries may gain access and continuously communicate with victims by injecting malicious content into systems through online network traffic.
T1674 Input Injection Execution
Adversaries may simulate keystrokes on a victim’s computer by various means to perform any type of action on behalf of the user, such as launching the command interpreter using keyboard shortcuts, typing an inline script to be executed,…
T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter Execution
Adversaries may abuse command and script interpreters to execute commands, scripts, or binaries.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-15576Shared CWE-269
CVE-2023-20193Shared CWE-269
CVE-2025-54595Shared CWE-269
CVE-2024-24892Shared CWE-269
CVE-2025-34187Shared CWE-269
CVE-2023-23749Shared CWE-74
CVE-2023-48835Shared CWE-74
CVE-2023-51939Shared CWE-74
CVE-2023-33242Shared CWE-74
CVE-2023-4157Shared CWE-74

Affected Assets

openwrt
openwrt
≤ 24.10.6

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 5 hardening rules · 5 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V10.4.1
  • V1.2.1
  • V1.2.3
  • V1.2.5

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Account management directly governs assignment and tracking of privileges so proper implementation stops the weakness from being introduced.

Requiring explicit access-control decisions ensures privileges are evaluated rather than assumed or omitted.

Access enforcement applies the correct privilege checks at every request, structurally preventing unintended spheres of control.

Separation of duties constrains how privileges may be assigned, reducing the chance of overly broad actor control.

Least privilege is the direct countermeasure to improper privilege management; implementing it eliminates the root cause.

Developer testing and evaluation can discover incomplete string comparisons through targeted test cases.

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.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

PR.AA-05 enforces least privilege/SoD and periodic reviews that directly remove most privilege-assignment defects, yet CWE-269 also covers escalation paths and role design outside a single access-management control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require input validation and output encoding that prevent injection flaws.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover partial-comparison flaws during code or binary analysis.

PR.AA-01 partial match
prevents

PR.AA-01 supplies credential/identity lifecycle support that can reduce some privilege-assignment errors but does not itself assign, modify, or check privileges, leaving most of CWE-269's risk unaddressed.

PR.PS-01 partial match
prevents

Config baselines and default reviews can enforce some privilege-related settings (one facet) but do not address code-level assignment/tracking logic that defines CWE-269.

PR.PS-05 partial match
prevents

PR.PS-05 can partially limit exploitability of some privilege issues via execution restrictions, but does not address the core design/implementation flaws of CWE-269 at all.

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.

prevents

Requiring owner approval, segregation of duties, and periodic reviews prevents the assignment of excessive or unnecessary privileges to users or processes.

prevents

Enforcing minimum-necessary privileges, temporary grants, and separation of administrative versus normal identities prevents the over-assignment of rights that CWE-269 describes.

finds

Security testing in development catches injection vulnerabilities before release.

prevents

Dynamic techniques that grant the minimum necessary rights for a given time window and revoke them afterward reduce the window in which excessive or unnecessary privileges can be exploited.

prevents

Explicit restrictions on privileged access and segregation of duties limit the scope of privileges that can be assigned, reducing the chance that excessive or unnecessary privileges are granted to entities.

prevents

Defining and communicating authorization levels for each role limits the assignment of excessive or unnecessary privileges.

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).

Windows 10 (1 rule)
  • V-220712 Only accounts responsible for the administration of a system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269
Windows 11 (1 rule)
  • V-253269 Only accounts responsible for the administration of a system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269
Windows Server 2016 (1 rule)
  • V-225007 Only administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269
Windows Server 2019 (1 rule)
  • V-205746 Windows Server 2019 must only allow Administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system to have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269
Windows Server 2022 (1 rule)
  • V-254428 Windows Server 2022 must only allow administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system to have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269

References