CVE-2026-72696 Grav CMS before 2.0.16 Symlink Following via createLockFile
Local attackers can overwrite arbitrary files by exploiting symlink following in Grav CMS scheduler lock files.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-72696?
CVE-2026-72696 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in getgrav grav, published on 25 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Grav CMS before 2.0.16 contains a symlink following vulnerability in Scheduler Job::createLockFile() that allows local attackers to overwrite arbitrary files by pre-creating symlinks at predictable lock file paths in the world-writable temp directory. Attackers can place a symlink at the predictable lock path pointing to any file the web server process can write to, and the next scheduled job run will follow the symlink and overwrite the target file's content with the job ID string.
Weakness: CWE-59
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72696?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72696?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-72696 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2026-72696 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-72696 exists.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-cpcf-vm8j-257x, GHSA-q8w8-6cq5-j4h2.