# CVE-2018-5448: Medtronic 2090 Carelink Programmer Relative Path Traversal

> An attacker can exploit a directory traversal vulnerability in Medtronic CareLink Programmer software to read arbitrary files on the system.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 May 2018
- **Updated:** 22 May 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-h435-fgp5-q25r

## What is CVE-2018-5448?

CVE-2018-5448 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Medtronic 2090 CareLink Programmer, published on 4 May 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Medtronic 2090 CareLink Programmer’s software deployment network contains a directory traversal vulnerability that could allow an attacker to read files on the system.

Weakness: CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory), CWE-23 (Relative Path Traversal)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-5448?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Medtronic 2090 Carelink Programmer Firmware.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-5448?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-5448 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-5448 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-5448 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Medtronic 2090 CareLink Programmer

- [CVE-2018-10596](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10596/): Medtronic 2090 Carelink Programmer Improper Restriction of Communication Channel to Intended Endpoints (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2018-5446](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-5446/): Medtronic 2090 Carelink Programmer Storing Passwords in a Recoverable Format (medium 4.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-5448 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-5448 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Medtronic 2090 CareLink Programmer, published on 4 May 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-5448 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Medtronic 2090 CareLink Programmer. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-5448/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-5448/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-5448
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-5448
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-5448

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-5448/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.