Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-42780

Path Traversal in F5 Big-Ip Ssl Orchestrator 17.1.0 – 17.1.3

Published
13 May 2026
Modified
23 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 6.9
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/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 0.0089 56th percentile
Risk Priority 29 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-42780 is a medium-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Ssl Orchestrator. Its CVSS base score is 6.9 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 44% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

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.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A directory traversal vulnerability exists in BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator that allows an authenticated attacker with high privilege to overwrite, delete or corrupt arbitrary local files.  Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.

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-2023-41373Same product: F5 Big-Ip Ssl Orchestrator
CVE-2023-28406Same product: F5 Big-Ip Ssl Orchestrator
CVE-2025-54755Same product: F5 Big-Ip Ssl Orchestrator
CVE-2020-5902Same product class: WAF / load balancer
CVE-2023-42130Same product class: WAF / load balancer
CVE-2023-42129Same product class: WAF / load balancer
CVE-2024-23607Same vendor: F5
CVE-2026-20916Same vendor: F5
CVE-2025-14727Same vendor: F5
CVE-2024-7634Same vendor: F5

Affected Assets

f5
big-ip ssl orchestrator
21.0.0 · 17.1.0 — 17.1.3 · 17.5.0 — 17.5.1

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