Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-52761

Owasp Modsecurity 3.0.0 – 3.0.15

Published
10 July 2026
Modified
14 July 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0041 34th percentile
Risk Priority 46 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-52761 is a medium-severity Use of sizeof() on a Pointer Type (CWE-467) vulnerability in Owasp Modsecurity. Its CVSS base score is 5.8 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 34th 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 SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and AT-3 (Role-based Training) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

ModSecurity is an open source, cross platform web application firewall (WAF) engine for Apache, IIS and Nginx. From 3.0.0 through 3.0.15, the t:utf8toUnicode transformation in src/actions/transformations/utf8_to_unicode.cc produces wrong output on i386 architecture because snprintf uses sizeof on a char pointer…

more

rather than the length of the unicode buffer, allowing rules that use this transformation to be bypassed on i386 architecture. This issue is fixed in version 3.0.16.

CWE(s)
CWE-467

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-30923Same product: Owasp Modsecurity
CVE-2026-42268Same product: Owasp Modsecurity
CVE-2024-1019Same product: Owasp Modsecurity
CVE-2025-54571Same product: Owasp Modsecurity
CVE-2026-52747Same product: Owasp Modsecurity
CVE-2023-38285Same product: Owasp Modsecurity
CVE-2025-48866Same product: Owasp Modsecurity
CVE-2023-28882Same product: Owasp Modsecurity
CVE-2023-38199Same vendor: Owasp
CVE-2026-3816Same vendor: Owasp

Affected Assets

owasp
modsecurity
3.0.0 — 3.0.15

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation can discover incorrect sizeof(pointer) usage via static analysis or test cases that expose wrong buffer sizes.

AT-3 Role-based Training partial match

Role-based secure-coding training teaches developers to use sizeof on the target object rather than the pointer.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Requiring documented development standards and tools can embed coding rules and checkers that forbid sizeof on pointer types.

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-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent pointer-sizeof mistakes via static analysis and code review while this single weakness addresses only a narrow slice of the control.

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.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect sizeof(pointer) errors but does not prevent them at source.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC processes include coding standards that reduce this class of defect.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding rules directly forbid sizeof(pointer) mistakes that produce incorrect buffer sizes.

References