VulnerabilityPublished 28 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-118655: V5 · Echo has a Static Middleware Double-Unescape Path Traversal

Affects github.com/labstack/echo/v5Source GCVE Database

Authoritative record:CVE-2026-118655· Medium 5.9

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.9 Medium : upgrade to 5.2.0 when convenient.

Data as of 28 Oct 2026, 22:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.9Medium

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

Patch: Available – fixed in 5.2.0, 4.15.3

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: High
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: None
Availability: None

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

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, 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: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
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: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 28 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: 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 26 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.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, 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

Upgrade github.com/labstack/echo/v5 to 5.2.0; github.com/labstack/echo/v4 to 4.15.3.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Gogithub.com/labstack/echo/v5	Affected <5.2.0	Fixed in 5.2.0
Gogithub.com/labstack/echo/v4	Affected <4.15.3	Fixed in 4.15.3

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

Description

## Summary Commit a9ede66a (PR #3006, issue #2599) silently fixed a path traversal vulnerability in the Echo web framework's static file middleware. ## Vulnerability The static middleware double-unescaped URL paths. Go's net/http already decodes Request.URL.Path, but middleware/static.go unconditionally called url.PathUnescape() again: ```go // BEFORE (vulnerable) pathUnescape := true ``` This reassembled path traversal sequences from double-encoded input. An attacker could send GET /%2e%2e%2fsecret.txt or /..%252fsecret.txt and the double-unescape would produce ../secret.txt. ## Fix ```go // AFTER (fixed) pathUnescape := false ``` The commit's test TestStatic_percentEncodedTraversalIsBlocked explicitly verifies traversal vectors are blocked. ## Impact Arbitrary file read from server filesystem via percent-encoded path traversal. ## References - Fix: https://github.com/labstack/echo/commit/a9ede66a - Issue: https://github.com/labstack/echo/issues/2599 - PR: https://github.com/labstack/echo/pull/3006 ## Patches Fixed in `github.com/labstack/echo/v5` v5.2.0 and `github.com/labstack/echo/v4` v4.15.3, where the Static middleware stopped unescaping an already decoded path. Maintainer analysis: reading files outside the configured root could not be reproduced; the confirmed impact was that a double-encoded slash (`%252F`) could reach a file under a guarded route when the Static middleware is registered globally. Upgrade to v5.4.0 / v4.16.0 or later, which also includes related fixes for encoded and dot-segment paths. ## Workarounds Keep files that need protection outside the Static middleware's root directory.

CWE-174Double Decoding of the Same Data (opens in a new tab)
Variant weakness
The product decodes the same input twice, which can limit the effectiveness of any protection mechanism that occurs in between the decoding operations.
Architecture and Design · Input Validation
Avoid making decisions based on names of resources (e.g. files) if those resources can have alternate names.
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 · Output Encoding
Use and specify an output encoding that can be handled by the downstream component that is reading the output. Common encodings include ISO-8859-1, UTF-7, and UTF-8.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V1.5.1 (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

WeaknessesCWE-174

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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