Critical

CISA Malcolm

All CISA Advisories

Overview

CISA Malcolm, a network traffic analysis tool, has several vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause denial-of-service conditions. Versions prior to 26.07.0 are particularly affected by issues related to file extraction and role-based access control, allowing unauthorized access to sensitive areas and the potential execution of malicious code. Specifically, CVEs 2026-55676, 2026-63133, 2026-63134, 2026-63177, and 2026-19670 highlight problems with file upload handling and directory traversal protections. Users of Malcolm are urged to update to the latest versions—26.07.0 or 26.06.1—to mitigate these risks. These vulnerabilities are significant as they could compromise the integrity and availability of systems utilizing CISA Malcolm worldwide.

Key Takeaways

  • Affected Systems: CISA Malcolm versions <26.06.1, <26.07.0, and <=26.07.1; CVE-2026-55676, CVE-2026-63133, CVE-2026-63134, CVE-2026-63177, CVE-2026-19670, CVE-2026-19671.
  • Action Required: Update to CISA Malcolm version 26.
  • Timeline: Newly disclosed

Original Article Summary

View CSAF Summary Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to cause a denial-of-service condition or execute arbitrary code. The following versions of CISA Malcolm are affected: Malcolm <26.06.1 (CVE-2026-55676) Malcolm <26.07.0 (CVE-2026-63133, CVE-2026-63134, CVE-2026-63177) Malcolm <=26.07.1 (CVE-2026-19670, CVE-2026-19671) CVSS Vendor Equipment Vulnerabilities v3 8.8 CISA CISA Malcolm Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling, Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal'), Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type, Incorrect Authorization, Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) Background Critical Infrastructure Sectors: Information Technology Countries/Areas Deployed: Worldwide Company Headquarters Location: United States Vulnerabilities Expand All + CVE-2026-63133 Malcolm is a network traffic analysis tool suite. Prior to version 26.07.0, safe-extract.py extracts uploaded archives with no limit on entry count, directory depth, total entries, or output size. A small malicious archive containing a large number of directory or file entries causes the filebeat processing container to create an unbounded number of filesystem objects, exhausting inodes or filesystem metadata and denying service to the processing pipeline and any service sharing the same mount. Version 26.07.0 fixes the issue. View CVE Details Affected Products CISA Malcolm Vendor: CISA Product Version: CISA Malcolm: <26.07.0 Product Status: known_affected Remediations Vendor fix Malcolm version 26.07.0 addresses these issues. For more information, see https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/pull/1043. (CVE-2026-63133, CVE-2026-63134, CVE-2026-63177) https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/pull/1043 Relevant CWE: CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling Metrics CVSS Version Base Score Base Severity Vector String 3.1 6.5 MEDIUM CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 4.0 7.1 HIGH CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVE-2026-63134 Malcolm is a network traffic analysis tool suite. Prior to version 26.07.0, safe-extract.py protects file extraction with libarchive's secure flags, but creates directory entries with a raw os.makedirs(os.path.join(dest, entry.pathname)) that has no traversal protection. An uploaded malicious archive containing a directory entry with a ../ sequence or an absolute path causes the filebeat processing container to create directories outside the intended extraction directory. Version 26.07.0 fixes the issue. View CVE Details Affected Products CISA Malcolm Vendor: CISA Product Version: CISA Malcolm: <26.07.0 Product Status: known_affected Remediations Vendor fix Malcolm version 26.07.0 addresses these issues. For more information, see https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/pull/1043. (CVE-2026-63133, CVE-2026-63134, CVE-2026-63177) https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/pull/1043 Relevant CWE: CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') Metrics CVSS Version Base Score Base Severity Vector String 3.1 5.4 MEDIUM CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L 4.0 5.3 MEDIUM CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVE-2026-55676 Malcolm is a network traffic analysis tool suite. The file-upload component (FilePond PHP backend) accepts uploads at POST /server/php/submit.php and stores them in a directory served by the same nginx and php-fpm instance. The allow-list that should restrict accepted file types is an empty array by default (file-upload/php/config.php:16), so the type check is a no-op and every extension is accepted. The filename sanitizer keeps the .php extension intact. Committed files land in /var/www/upload/server/php/files (file-upload/php/config.php:7), and the component's nginx routes any URL ending in .php to php-fpm. An authenticated GET /server/php/files/.php then executes the uploaded code as www-data. Prior to version 26.06.1, in RBAC mode, the upload endpoint is reachable by the granular ROLE_UPLOAD role (nginx/lua/nginx_auth_helpers.lua:71), a role intended only for submitting capture files. As a result, a user holding the upload-only role runs arbitrary PHP as www-data inside the file-upload container. Version 26.06.1 fixes the issue. View CVE Details Affected Products CISA Malcolm Vendor: CISA Product Version: CISA Malcolm: <26.06.1 Product Status: known_affected Remediations Vendor fix Malcolm version 26.06.1 addresses this issue. For more information, see https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/pull/1026. (CVE-2026-55676) https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/pull/1026 Relevant CWE: CWE-434 Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type Metrics CVSS Version Base Score Base Severity Vector String 3.1 8.8 HIGH CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 4.0 8.7 HIGH CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVE-2026-63177 Malcolm is a network traffic analysis tool suite. Prior to version 26.07.0, role-based access control enforced in the Nginx OpenResty Lua layer evaluates the raw, unnormalized ngx.var.request_uri, while Nginx itself routes requests using the normalized path. An authenticated low-privilege user can prepend a traversal segment (for example /x/../upload/...) so that Nginx routes the request to a restricted backend while the Lua role check fails to match any rule and falls open, granting access it should deny. Version 26.07.0 fixes the issue. View CVE Details Affected Products CISA Malcolm Vendor: CISA Product Version: CISA Malcolm: <26.07.0 Product Status: known_affected Remediations Vendor fix Malcolm version 26.07.0 addresses these issues. For more information, see https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/pull/1043. (CVE-2026-63133, CVE-2026-63134, CVE-2026-63177) https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/pull/1043 Relevant CWE: CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization Metrics CVSS Version Base Score Base Severity Vector String 3.1 7.1 HIGH CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N 4.0 7.1 HIGH CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:L CVE-2026-19670 Malcolm's nginx Lua role-based access control (RBAC) layer decides whether an authenticated user may reach a role-restricted path (e.g. /htadmin, /auth, /admin_login, /arkime/api/esadmin, NetBox, upload endpoints) by pattern-matching the raw, percent-encoded request URI. Nginx itself, however, selects which location block actually serves the request using the percent-decoded, normalized URI. Because the RBAC check never percent-decodes its input, an authenticated low-privilege user can request an admin-only path using percent-encoding (e.g. /%68tadmin.php) and have nginx route it to the restricted location while the Lua RBAC gate evaluating the un-decoded raw string finds no matching restriction and grants access. View CVE Details Affected Products CISA Malcolm Vendor: CISA Product Version: CISA Malcolm: <=26.07.1 Product Status: known_affected Remediations Vendor fix Malcolm version 26.08.0 addresses this issue. For more information, see https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/security/advisories/GHSA-jr6p-63pg-hr6g. (CVE-2026-19670) https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/security/advisories/GHSA-jr6p-63pg-hr6g Relevant CWE: CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization Metrics CVSS Version Base Score Base Severity Vector String 3.1 5.4 MEDIUM CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N 4.0 5.3 MEDIUM 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 CVE-2026-19671 Malcolm's upload-processing pipeline (scripts/safe-extract.py) enforces entry-count, nesting-depth, and total-uncompressed-byte limits when extracting container archives (zip/tar/rar/7z via libarchive), but those limits are not applied when the uploaded file is a single-stream compressed format (.gz, .bz2, .xz, .lzma, .lz) that isn't a .tar.*-style archive. Any authenticated user permitted to upload PCAP/log files can upload a small, highly compressible file (e.g. a gzip bomb) that decompresses to an effectively unbounded size on disk, exhausting the shared Docker volume used by OpenSearch, Logstash, Arkime, and Zeek, and disrupting the platform for all users. View CVE Details Affected Products CISA Malcolm Vendor: CISA Product Version: CISA Malcolm: <=26.07.1 Product Status: known_affected Remediations Vendor fix Malcolm version 26.08.0 addresses this issue. For more information, see https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/security/advisories/GHSA-f2v6-8cj4-mhr6. (CVE-2026-19671) https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/security/advisories/GHSA-f2v6-8cj4-mhr6 Relevant CWE: CWE-409 Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) Metrics CVSS Version Base Score Base Severity Vector String 3.1 6.5 MEDIUM CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 4.0 7.1 HIGH CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N Acknowledgments pavanchow reported CVE-2026-63133, CVE-2026-63134, and CVE-2026-63177 to CISA. kah-ja, DeathRipper21 reported CVE-2026-55676 to CISA. tinyb0y reported CVE-2026-19670 and CVE-2026-19671 to CISA. Legal Notice and Terms of Use This product is provided subject to this Notification (https://www.cisa.gov/notification) and this Privacy & Use policy (https://www.cisa.gov/privacy-policy). Recommended Practices CISA recommends users take defensive measures to minimize the risk of exploitation of these vulnerabilities. Minimize network exposure for all control system devices and/or systems, ensuring they are not accessible from the internet. Locate control system networks and remote devices behind firewalls and isolating them from business networks. When remote access is required, use more secure methods, such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), recognizing VPNs may have vulnerabilities and should be updated to the most current version available. Also recognize VPN is only as secure as the connected devices. CISA reminds organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures. CISA also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS webpage on cisa.gov/ics. Several CISA products detailing cyber defense best practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies. CISA encourages organizations to implement recommended cybersecurity strategies for proactive defense of ICS assets. Additional mitigation guidance and recommended practices are publicly available on the ICS webpage at cisa.gov/ics in the technical information paper, ICS-TIP-12-146-01B--Targeted Cyber Intrusion Detection and Mitigation Strategies. Organizations observing suspected malicious activity should follow established internal procedures and report findings to CISA for tracking and correlation against other incidents. CISA also recommends users take the following measures to protect themselves from social engineering attacks: Do not click web links or open attachments in unsolicited email messages. Refer to Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams for more information on avoiding email scams. Refer to Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks for more information on social engineering attacks. No known public exploitation specifically targeting these vulnerabilities has been reported to CISA at this time. Revision History Initial Release Date: 2026-08-18 Date Revision Summary 2026-08-18 1 Initial Publication Legal Notice and Terms of Use

Impact

CISA Malcolm versions <26.06.1, <26.07.0, and <=26.07.1; CVE-2026-55676, CVE-2026-63133, CVE-2026-63134, CVE-2026-63177, CVE-2026-19670, CVE-2026-19671.

Exploitation Status

No active exploitation has been reported at this time. However, organizations should still apply patches promptly as proof-of-concept code may exist.

Timeline

Newly disclosed

Remediation

Update to CISA Malcolm version 26.07.0 or 26.06.1. Specific patches addressing the vulnerabilities are available at https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/pull/1043 and https://github.com/cisagov/Malcolm/pull/1026.

Additional Information

This threat intelligence is aggregated from trusted cybersecurity sources. For the most up-to-date information, technical details, and official vendor guidance, please refer to the original article linked below.

Related Topics: This incident relates to Phishing, CVE, Vulnerability, and 3 more.

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