CVE-2026-44177

Kirby: Pre-authentication path traversal and PHP file inclusion during user lookup

HIGH
8.8
CVSS Score
Published: July 16, 2026 at 09:19 PM UTC
Updated: October 24, 2026 at 08:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorKirby

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Severity
HIGH8.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

Kirby is an open-source content management system. In versions 5.3.0 and above but prior to 5.4.1, Kirby did not correctly validate the provided user ID, resulting in a path traversal vulnerability. Version 5.3.0 introduced a performance improvement to the Users collection that loaded user objects lazily when first needed. Users were queried by their ID, which was then used to locate the corresponding account directory under site/accounts. This affected the authentication API (accessible to unauthenticated requests), the users API (accessible only to authenticated users), and any other place that uses $users->find() to look up an individual user by a request-provided email or ID. As a result, an attacker could trigger arbitrary PHP file inclusion of files named  index.php (for example, the main PHP files of plugins), the impact of which depends on the logic those files contain. It also allowed probing for the existence of arbitrary directories on the server, letting attackers fingerprint the server and site setup, including installed plugins and the content structure. This issue has been fixed in version 5.4.1.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

90%
Affected range stops below 5.4.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.8HIGHGitHub_M
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-22CWE-98

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