Quick answer
Direct answer
Risk scores
| CVSS metric | What it means |
|---|---|
| Attack vector (AV:N) | Network: reachable remotely |
| Attack complexity (AC:L) | Low complexity |
| Attack requirements (AT:N) | No attack requirements |
| Privileges required (PR:H) | High privileges required |
| User interaction (UI:N) | No user interaction |
| Confidentiality (VC:L) | Low confidentiality impact |
| Integrity (VI:H) | High integrity impact |
| Availability (VA:H) | High availability impact |
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:L/VI:H/VA:H/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
About Wazuh
CVE-2025-15616 affects Wazuh, a product from Wazuh. Before acting, confirm where Wazuh runs in your estate, who owns it and whether it is reachable from the internet, because exposure decides real risk more than the score alone.
What the flaw is
In plain terms: Wazuh wazuh-agent and wazuh-manager versions 2.1.0 before 4.8.0 contain multiple shell injection and untrusted search path vulnerabilities that allow attackers to execute arbitrary commands through various components including logcollector configuration, maild SMTP server tags, and Kaspersky AR script parameters. Attackers can exploit these vulnerabilities by injecting malicious commands through configuration files, SMTP server settings, and custom flags to achieve remote code execution on affected systems.
The weakness class is Code Injection. Attacker input is executed as program code.
Based on its CVSS vector, the flaw can be reached over the network, needs some level of access, and needs no user interaction. Apply the vendor fix and confirm exposure on internet facing and business critical assets first.
Affected versions and timeline
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Product | Wazuh |
| Affected versions | Wazuh from 2.1.0 before 4.8.0 |
| Published | Mar 27, 2026 |
| Last modified | Oct 14, 2026 |
| Added to CISA KEV | Not listed |
| Assigning CNA | disclosure@vulncheck.com |
How to detect it
- Inventory every instance of Wazuh and record the running version against the affected range above.
- Check external attack surface scans for internet facing instances of the component.
- Review logs on affected systems for unusual requests, errors or new processes around the vulnerable function.
- Confirm with an authenticated vulnerability scan once your scanner has a check for this CVE.
How to fix it
- Apply the fixed version of Wazuh named in the vendor advisory.
- If patching must wait, restrict network access to the affected service and put it behind authentication or a web application firewall rule.
- Rescan after the change to prove the exposure is gone, then close the ticket.
CTEM action plan
| CTEM stage | What to do for this CVE |
|---|---|
| Scope | Add every business service that depends on Wazuh to the current CTEM cycle. |
| Discover | Find all instances, including shadow and cloud deployments, and record versions and exposure. |
| Prioritize | Rank using EPSS and CVSS together with asset exposure and business impact. |
| Validate | Confirm the flaw is reachable and exploitable in your environment and that compensating controls work. |
| Mobilize | Assign the fix to the asset owner with a due date matched to the priority, then verify closure. |
CWE References
- CWE-94: Code Injection More CVEs with this weakness
Technical References
Frequently asked questions
Related CVEs
Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response. From 4.0.0 until 4.14.6 and 5.0.0-beta2, WazuhCommon.end_receiving_file() in framework/wazuh/core/cluster/common.py allows a cluster-authenticated node to delete files outside WAZUH_PATH. A syn_i_w_m_e request with an unknown task_id reaches the cleanup branch, where an attacker-controlled filename is passed to os.path.join without canonicalization or confinement. Absolute paths and traversal sequences can therefore target files such as ossec.conf, jwt_secret.json, TLS certificates, and ruleset files that are accessible to the Wazuh manager process. Deletion can disable the manager, invalidate API tokens, or disrupt cluster and API connectivity. This issue is fixed in versions 4.14.6 and 5.0.0-beta2.
Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response. From 4.0.0 until 4.14.5, Wazuh Manager allows a low-privilege read-only API user with manager:read permission to retrieve the cluster key from the element in ossec.conf through GET /manager/configuration?raw=true. An attacker with network access to TCP port 1516 can use the disclosed Fernet key to impersonate a cluster worker and submit distributed API requests containing attacker-controlled rbac_permissions with rbac_mode set to black. Because the master trusts the worker-supplied authorization context, the attacker can create users, assign administrator roles, access credentials and API tokens, modify configuration, and execute actions across agents. This issue is fixed in version 4.14.5.
Wazuh 5.0.0-beta1 (fixed in 5.0.0-beta3) does not validate or override the cluster_name and cluster_node fields in inventory-sync Start FlatBuffer messages, while validating only the agentid against the authenticated agent identity. This allows a low-privileged enrolled agent to spoof cluster attribution in indexed inventory and vulnerability documents by forging wazuh.cluster.name values and influencing the document _id prefix, potentially tampering with inventory records or, in shared-indexer multi-cluster deployments, poisoning another cluster's records when numeric agent IDs collide.
Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response. Prior to version 4.14.5, issues in the Cluster Distributed API (DAPI) handling allow a cluster peer, or any actor able to authenticate to the cluster channel using the shared cluster key, to make the master node deserialize an attacker-controlled callable and execute it under an attacker-controlled RBAC context. The cluster code in `framework/wazuh/core/cluster/common.py` deserializes JSON with `as_wazuh_object()`, which resolves any callable whose top-level package is wazuh or api (an overly broad allowlist controlled only by `ALLOWED_CALLABLES_PACKAGES`), and DAPI requests handled in framework/wazuh/core/cluster/dapi/dapi.py accept a client-supplied rbac_permissions value that `run_local()` applies as the global RBAC context, so supplying an rbac_mode of black causes authorization checks for expose_resources-protected functions to pass without any legitimate permission assignment. Combined, these allow privileged administrative actions on the master node such as arbitrary file writes under WAZUH_PATH, creation of new API users, and tampering with security.yaml, and can be chained into full manager compromise. This issue has been fixed in version 4.14.5.
Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response. From version 4.4.0 to before version 4.14.4, a path traversal vulnerability in Wazuh's cluster synchronization extraction routine allows an authenticated cluster peer to write arbitrary files outside the intended extraction directory on other cluster nodes. This can be escalated to code execution in the Wazuh service context by overwriting Python modules loaded by Wazuh components (proof of concept available as separate attachment). In deployments where the cluster daemon runs with elevated privileges, system-level compromise is possible. This issue has been patched in version 4.14.4.
Wazuh version 4.12.0 contains an exposure vulnerability in GitHub Actions workflow artifacts that allows attackers to extract the GITHUB_TOKEN from uploaded artifacts. Attackers can use the exposed token within a limited time window to perform unauthorized actions such as pushing malicious commits or altering release tags.
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