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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2026-49986: cdeust Cortex · Untrusted Functionality Inclusion

Affects cdeust CortexSource CVE Database V5

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Public exploit available · CVSS 7.1 High : upgrade to 3.17.1 as a priority.

Data as of 12 Nov 2026, 23:24 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
7.1High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 5% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 3.17.1
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 14 Aug 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: evidence found.

    CVSS exploit maturity: proof of concept public

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq 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), CVSS vector, the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 13 Nov 2026.

What to do

Upgrade Cortex and cdeust/Cortex to 3.17.1.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
cdeustCortexAffected
  • <3.17.1
Fixed in
  • 3.17.1
GitHubcdeust/Cortexpkg:github/cdeust/CortexOther threatsAffected
  • <3.17.1
Fixed in
  • 3.17.1

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

AI-suggested

Version 3.17.1 of Cortex fixes this vulnerability. Users should upgrade to version 3.17.1 or later to remediate the issue. No official remediation level or temporary fix is provided. Until patched, users should avoid running the open_visualization tool with untrusted project directories set in CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR.

Description

The Cortex MCP server (`neuro-cortex-memory`), a cross-platform persistent memory MCP, prior to version 3.17.1 treats the `CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR` environment variable — automatically set by Claude Code to the currently open project directory — as a trusted Cortex developer checkout. When the `open_visualization` tool is invoked, `_find_dev_source()` resolves the user's active project directory as a candidate Cortex source root. The only validation performed by `_is_cortex_root()` is a check for the presence of an `mcp_server/` subdirectory and a `ui/unified-viz.html` file. An attacker who places these two marker files in a malicious repository can cause Cortex to execute an arbitrary `mcp_server/server/visualize_bootstrap.py` from that directory via `subprocess.run([sys.executable, ...])`, achieving code execution with the privileges of the victim's local user process. Version 3.17.1 fixes the issue.

References

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