CVE-2026-48162: wazuh External Control of File Name or Path

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-48162 is a critical (CVSS 9.1) External Control of File Name or Path vulnerability in wazuh. EPSS estimates a 0.65% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 50.5% of scored vulnerabilities. 1 public exploit is recorded.

Timeline

1. 19-08-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 25-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

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 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-73External Control of File Name or PathThe product allows user input to control or influence paths or file names that are used in filesystem operations.