CVE-2026-23942SFTP root escape via component-agnostic prefix check in ssh_sftpd
- 5.3MediumCVSS base score
- 0.41%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 64% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in Erlang OTP (ssh_sftpd module) allows Path Traversal. This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/ssh/src/ssh_sftpd.erl and program routines ssh_sftpd:is_within_root/2. The SFTP server uses string prefix matching via lists:prefix/2 rather than proper path component validation when checking if a path is within the configured root directory. This allows authenticated users to access sibling directories that share a common name prefix with the configured root directory. For example, if root is set to /home/user1, paths like /home/user10 or /home/user1_backup would incorrectly be considered within the root. This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 26.2.5.18, OTP 27.3.4.9, and OTP 28.4.1, corresponding to ssh from 3.0.1 before 5.1.4.14, 5.2.11.6, and 5.5.1. Whether OTP before OTP 17.0, corresponding to ssh before 3.0.1, is affected is unknown.
Timeline
ID reserved
By EEF
- 53 days later
· 53 days later
Published
- 8 months later
· 8 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| EEFCNA (assigner) | 4.0 | Medium5.3 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 4.0 | Medium5.3 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.41% · top 64% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.3.
Affected products
- affected 17.0 – < *
- affected 3.0.1 – < *
- affected 84adefa331c4159d432d22840663c38f155cd4c1 – < *
- unaffected 5ed603a1211b83b8be2d1fc06d3f3bf30c3c9759 – < *
- unaffected 9e0ac85d3485e7898e0da88a14be0ee2310a3b28 – < *
- unaffected 27688a824f753d4c16371dc70e88753fb410590b – < *
What to do
Workaround: * Use OS-level chroot to run the Erlang VM/SFTP server process in an isolated filesystem environment. * Ensure that no sensitive or precious data is readable or writable by the OS user running the Erlang VM. * Ensure that the SFTP server port is not reachable from untrusted machines. * Use directory naming conventions that avoid common prefixes (e.g., /home/users/alice/ instead of /home/user1/).
References
References7
- SFTP root escape via component-agnostic prefix check in `ssh_sftpd` (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryrelated
- EEF CNA record for CVE-2026-23942 (opens in a new tab)related
- OSV record EEF-CVE-2026-23942 (opens in a new tab)related
- Erlang/OTP version ordering (opens in a new tab)x_version-scheme
- Fix commit 5ed603a in erlang/otp (opens in a new tab)patch
- Fix commit 9e0ac85 in erlang/otp (opens in a new tab)patch
- Fix commit 27688a8 in erlang/otp (opens in a new tab)patch
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-11778 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-23942)Record last updated .