Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-48162

Path Traversal in Wazuh 4.0.0 – 4.14.6

Public PoCPath Traversal
Published
19 August 2026
Modified
15 September 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0057 46th percentile
Risk Priority 59 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2026-48162 is a critical-severity External Control of File Name or Path (CWE-73) vulnerability in Wazuh Wazuh. Its CVSS base score is 9.1 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data from Local System (T1005); ranked at the 46th 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 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — 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. From 4.0.0 until 4.14.6 and 5.0.0-beta3, DistributedAPI.send_tmp_file() in framework/wazuh/core/cluster/dapi/dapi.py joins an attacker-controlled tmp_file value to WAZUH_PATH without canonicalization or confinement. A cluster peer holding the…

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shared Fernet key can use traversal or an absolute path to make the master return any readable file over the cluster channel. Reading /var/ossec/api/configuration/security/private_key.pem allows the peer to forge administrator REST API tokens offline and then exercise administrative privileges without creating an account. This issue is fixed in versions 4.14.6 and 5.0.0-beta3.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
T1083 File and Directory Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may enumerate files and directories or may search in specific locations of a host or network share for certain information within a file system.
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.
T1574.007 Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking environment variables used to load libraries.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-49441Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-30893Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2024-1243Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2025-30201Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-48024Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-61800Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-39359Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-54083Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2025-62792Same product: Wazuh Wazuh
CVE-2026-25769Same product: Wazuh Wazuh

Affected Assets

wazuh
wazuh
5.0.0 · 4.0.0 — 4.14.6

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

Input validation directly rejects or sanitizes untrusted path strings before they reach filesystem operations.

Enforces authorization checks on the actual resource accessed, blocking unauthorized files even when a malicious path is supplied.

Least-privilege limits the set of files or directories any subject can affect, shrinking the blast radius of a path-control flaw.

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 partial match
prevents

Least-privilege file authorization directly limits damage from externally controlled paths.

PR.PS-06 partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices include input validation and path sanitization that eliminate this weakness.

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

Secure development lifecycle mandates input validation and path-handling controls that directly prevent external file/path manipulation.

prevents

Application security requirements explicitly call for controls against untrusted input influencing file operations.

prevents

Secure architecture principles discourage unsafe path construction but do not prescribe concrete file-name controls.

prevents

Secure coding standards require canonicalization, allow-listing, and bounds checks on file paths, directly eliminating CWE-73.

finds

Security testing can detect path-traversal issues but does not itself implement preventive controls.

mitigates

Information access restriction limits which files can be reached, indirectly reducing impact of path manipulation.

References