# CVE-2026-73973: Path traversal in monitoring-plugins

> Attackers with monitoring account access can read arbitrary root files like /etc/shadow via path traversal in the logfile plugin, leading to privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:** 18 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-f54c-p5vg-mr5c

## What is CVE-2026-73973?

CVE-2026-73973 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Linuxfabrik monitoring-plugins, published on 18 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Linuxfabrik Monitoring Plugins provides monitoring plugins for Icinga, Nagios, and related systems. Prior to version 7.0.0, check-plugins/logfile/logfile accepted a free-form --filename path and opened it as root when invoked through the shipped nagios or icinga sudoers allowlist, without confining the resolved path to /var/log. An attacker who controls the monitoring account can select a root-readable file such as /etc/shadow and use --warning-regex . while leaving SUPPRESS_OUTPUT false, causing each nonempty line to be collected in warn_matches and returned through lib.base.oao(). The vulnerable flow passes the expanded scan_path directly to open(), and neither real-path containment nor an allowlist protects the sink. The same fix also confines mysql-logfile and openvpn-client-list paths, allows only documented log roots, and resolves symlinks and parent-directory traversal before checking containment. This issue is fixed in version 7.0.0.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management), CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-73973?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-73973?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-73973 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-73973 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-73973 exists.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-73973 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-73973 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Linuxfabrik monitoring-plugins, published on 18 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-73973 exists.

Affected product: Linuxfabrik monitoring-plugins. 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-2026-73973/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-73973/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-73973
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-73973
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-73973

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-73973/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.