VulnerabilityPublished 5 Mar 2026

CVE-2026-28538: Huawei HarmonyOS · Path Traversal: '../filedir

Affects Huawei HarmonyOSSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.9 Medium.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 11:52 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.9Medium

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

EPSS: 0.06% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 0% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: Low

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

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
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 on the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 5 Mar 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 30 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
HuaweiHarmonyOS	Affected =6.0.0 =5.1.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2026-28538, organizations should implement the following specific measures: 1) Restrict local access to devices running affected HarmonyOS versions by enforcing strong physical security and user authentication controls. 2) Monitor and audit access to certificate management modules and related file systems to detect unusual file access or modification attempts. 3) Employ application whitelisting and sandboxing to limit the ability of unauthorized processes to interact with certificate files. 4) Once available, promptly apply official patches or updates from Huawei addressing this vulnerability. 5) Use file integrity monitoring tools to detect unauthorized changes to certificate files. 6) Educate users and administrators about the risks of local exploitation and enforce least privilege principles to minimize attack surface. 7) Consider network segmentation to isolate critical HarmonyOS devices from untrusted networks or users. These targeted actions go beyond generic advice by focusing on access control, monitoring, and rapid patch deployment specific to the certificate management context.

Description

Path traversal vulnerability in the certificate management module. Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may affect availability.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2026-28538 is on the availability and integrity of the certificate management system within Huawei HarmonyOS. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to access or manipulate certificate files, potentially causing failures in authentication, encryption, or secure communications. This disruption could lead to denial of service conditions or compromise trust mechanisms, affecting applications relying on certificates. Although confidentiality impact is low, the integrity and availability concerns could have significant operational consequences, especially in environments where HarmonyOS is used in critical infrastructure, IoT devices, or enterprise systems. Since the vulnerability requires local access, the risk is somewhat contained; however, in scenarios where devices are shared or physically accessible by attackers, the threat is more pronounced. Organizations relying on HarmonyOS for secure communications or certificate-based authentication may face increased risk of service interruptions or security breaches if this vulnerability is exploited.

CWE-24Path Traversal: '../filedir' (opens in a new tab)
Variant weakness
The product uses external input to construct a pathname that should be within a restricted directory, but it does not properly neutralize "../" sequences that can resolve to a location that is outside of that 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.
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 ASVS 4.0.3
V12.3.1 (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 5 Mar 2026, 08:33 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-24

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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