VulnerabilityPublished 29 Jul 2026Updated 17 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-44943: open-iscsi · Path Traversal

Affects open-iscsiSource GCVE Database

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Mentioned vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-44944

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.9 Medium.

Data as of 29 Oct 2026, 07:15 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

6.9Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 32% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: Low
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact to the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 29 Jul 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 29 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Ubuntu 26.10open-iscsi`pkg:deb/ubuntu/open-iscsi?arch=source&distro=stonking`Other threats	Affected 2.1.11-3ubuntu3 – 2.1.11-5ubuntu6 5 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 26.04 LTSopen-iscsi`pkg:deb/ubuntu/open-iscsi?arch=source&distro=resolute`Other threats	Affected 2.1.11-1ubuntu3 – 2.1.11-3ubuntu3.1 5 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSopen-iscsi`pkg:deb/ubuntu/open-iscsi?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected 2.1.8-1ubuntu2 – 2.1.9-3ubuntu5.5 10 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 22.04 LTSopen-iscsi`pkg:deb/ubuntu/open-iscsi?arch=source&distro=jammy`Other threats	Affected 2.1.4-0ubuntu1 – 2.1.5-1ubuntu1.3 7 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 20.04 LTSopen-iscsi`pkg:deb/ubuntu/open-iscsi?arch=source&distro=focal`Other threats	Affected 2.0.874-7.1ubuntu3 – 2.0.874-7.1ubuntu6.5 8 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTSopen-iscsi`pkg:deb/ubuntu/open-iscsi?arch=source&distro=esm-infra/bionic`Other threats	Affected 2.0.874-4ubuntu3 – 2.0.874-5ubuntu2.11+esm1 15 affected builds	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

Red Hat has released updated iscsi-initiator-utils packages that fix these vulnerabilities. Users should apply the official patches provided by Red Hat as detailed in the advisory RHSA-2026:53844. No additional mitigation steps are indicated beyond applying the vendor-provided updates.

Description

CVE-2026-44943 is a path traversal vulnerability in the open-iscsi package used by iscsi-initiator-utils that allows remote man-in-the-middle attackers to create root-owned files outside the intended database and inject lines into records. This vulnerability affects multiple specific versions of iscsi-initiator-utils on various Linux distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and SUSE. Red Hat has released updated packages to address this issue. The vulnerability has a high severity rating and is accompanied by another authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2026-44944) fixed in the same update.

Impact

The path traversal vulnerability (CVE-2026-44943) allows remote attackers to create root-owned files outside the intended directory, potentially leading to privilege escalation or unauthorized modification of system files. This can compromise system integrity. The authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2026-44944) allows unprivileged local users to access the iscsiuio control socket, potentially enabling unauthorized control over iSCSI initiator operations. Both vulnerabilities pose a high security risk if exploited.

CWE-22Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #6OWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.
Implementation · Input Validation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
Architecture and Design
For any security checks that are performed on the client side, ensure that these checks are duplicated on the server side, in order to avoid CWE-602. Attackers can bypass the client-side checks by modifying values after the checks have been performed, or by changing the client to remove the client-side checks…
Implementation · Input Validation
Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174).
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Path Traversal (opens in a new tab)
Using Slashes and URL Encoding Combined to Bypass Validation Logic (opens in a new tab)
Manipulating Web Input to File System Calls (opens in a new tab)
Using Escaped Slashes in Alternate Encoding (opens in a new tab)
Using Slashes in Alternate Encoding (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).
CWE-1220Insufficient Granularity of Access Control (opens in a new tab)
Base weakness
The product implements access controls via a policy or other feature with the intention to disable or restrict accesses (reads and/or writes) to assets in a system from untrusted agents. However, implemented access controls lack the required granularity
Architecture and Design · Implementation · Testing
Access-control-policy protections must be reviewed for design inconsistency and common weaknesses.; Access-control-policy definition and programming flow must be tested in pre-silicon, post-silicon testing.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Docker Security (opens in a new tab)
Third Party Javascript Management (opens in a new tab)
Virtual Patching (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V1.4.4 (opens in a new tab)
V1.4.5 (opens in a new tab)
V1.10.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Accessing Functionality Not Properly Constrained by ACLs (opens in a new tab)
Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 18 Oct 2026, 06:09 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-22, CWE-1220

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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