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ModSecurity EUVDEUVD-2026-43113

| CVE-2026-52761 MEDIUM
Use of sizeof() on a Pointer Type (CWE-467)
2026-07-10 GitHub_M
5.3
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Identify i386 ModSecurity-protected target
  2. Delivery
    Craft UTF-8 encoded attack payload
  3. Exploit
    Send HTTP request triggering t:utf8toUnicode rule
  4. Execution
    Transformation outputs corrupt data on i386
  5. Persist
    WAF rule fails to match malicious payload
  6. Impact
    Malicious request reaches backend application

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires that ModSecurity is deployed on an i386 (32-bit x86) architecture - the bug does not manifest on x86_64 or other architectures. Additionally, at least one active ModSecurity rule in the deployed rule set must use the t:utf8toUnicode transformation on the attacker-controlled input field being targeted; if no such rule is in use, there is no exploitable bypass condition. The attacker must know or discover that the target is running i386 ModSecurity to craft an effective evasion payload, though this may be inferred from server fingerprinting. No authentication is required - the attack is conducted over the network against normal HTTP traffic. Limiting factors: i386 is rare in contemporary production server deployments; most cloud and datacenter environments run x86_64 exclusively.

Impact

The provided CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N, score 5.8) reflects the network accessibility and scope change (WAF bypass affecting downstream applications), but AC:L overstates ease of exploitation by ignoring the i386 architecture prerequisite - a condition not under attacker control. In practice, i386 production deployments are rare today, with the vast majority of servers running x86_64 or ARM; this architectural constraint substantially shrinks the real-world vulnerable population. No EPSS score was provided in the source data. The CVE is not listed in CISA KEV and no public exploit code has been confirmed. The CVSS Scope:Changed metric correctly signals that a successful bypass impacts the application behind the WAF, not just ModSecurity itself. Overall, this is a medium-priority issue: real severity if i386 deployment is confirmed, but the architectural specificity limits mass exploitability significantly compared to the raw CVSS score suggests.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker targeting a web application protected by ModSecurity on an i386 server crafts an HTTP request containing a malicious payload (such as an XSS vector or SQL injection string) encoded in UTF-8 in a way specifically designed to evade detection after t:utf8toUnicode normalization. Because the transformation produces incorrect output on i386 due to the sizeof bug, the ModSecurity rule fails to match the normalized form of the payload, and the malicious request passes through the WAF to the backend application. No public proof-of-concept has been confirmed, but the deterministic nature of the bug makes exploitation straightforward once the architecture is confirmed.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.4% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Jul 10, 2026

WAF rule bypass in ModSecurity 3.0.0-3.0.15 on i386 architecture allows network-accessible attackers to evade rules that use the t:utf8toUnicode transformation, potentially permitting injection attacks or other malicious payloads to reach protected applications undetected. The root cause is CWE-467 - sizeof() applied to a char pointer in utf8_to_unicode.cc yields the pointer width (4 bytes on i386) rather than the unicode buffer length, corrupting transformation output. No public exploit code or active exploitation has been identified at time of analysis; the fix is available in v3.0.16.

RemediationAI

Upgrade ModSecurity to version 3.0.16, which resolves the issue via commit edcd010814e234d46e2ec55a0f1078ff9d3032e4 (https://github.com/owasp-modsecurity/ModSecurity/commit/edcd010814e234d46e2ec55a0f1078ff9d3032e4); the release is available at https://github.com/owasp-modsecurity/ModSecurity/releases/tag/v3.0.16. If an immediate upgrade is not feasible on affected i386 systems, a targeted workaround is to audit ModSecurity rule sets and remove or rewrite rules that rely on the t:utf8toUnicode transformation, replacing them with alternative encoding normalization transformations (e.g., t:urlDecodeUni or t:htmlEntityDecode) that are not affected by this bug - note this may reduce coverage for specific UTF-8 evasion patterns. Disabling the transformation globally is also viable but trades detection coverage for stability. Organizations should verify the architecture of their ModSecurity deployments before treating this as urgent.

Affected VersionsENISA

ModSecurity 3.0.0, < 3.0.16

Affected Packages

euvd modsecurity_3_0_0 fix: 3.0.16

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

ModSecurity is a cross-platform WAF engine (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:owasp-modsecurity:modsecurity:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) that integrates with Apache, IIS, and Nginx. The vulnerability resides in src/actions/transformations/utf8_to_unicode.cc and is classified as CWE-467 (Use of sizeof() on a Pointer Type). On i386, a char pointer is 4 bytes wide; snprintf incorrectly uses sizeof(pointer) as the buffer size argument instead of the actual unicode buffer length. This produces silently truncated or otherwise malformed output from the t:utf8toUnicode transformation. ModSecurity rules that normalize input using this transformation before matching - a common practice for detecting evasion via UTF-8 encoding tricks - will operate on corrupt data and fail to match attack signatures, creating a detection gap. The bug is architecture-specific: 64-bit and other architectures where pointer size coincidentally matches or exceeds the buffer size are not affected.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (GitHub_M) PRIMARY MEDIUM
NVD 5.3 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
vuln.today AI 4.0 MEDIUM

AC:H because exploitation is contingent on i386 architecture, a deployment condition outside attacker control that substantially limits viable targets.

3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N
Red Hat 5.8 MEDIUM

Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

Lifecycle Timeline

3
CVSS changed
Jul 14, 2026 - 19:52 NVD
5.8 (MEDIUM) 5.3 (MEDIUM)
Patch available
Jul 10, 2026 - 23:02 EUVD
CVE Published
Jul 10, 2026 - 21:40 cve.org
MEDIUM 5.8

DescriptionNVD

ModSecurity is an open source, cross platform web application firewall (WAF) engine for Apache, IIS and Nginx. From 3.0.0 through 3.0.15, the t:utf8toUnicode transformation in src/actions/transformations/utf8_to_unicode.cc produces wrong output on i386 architecture because snprintf uses sizeof on a char pointer rather than the length of the unicode buffer, allowing rules that use this transformation to be bypassed on i386 architecture. This issue is fixed in version 3.0.16.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.4%
Top 65% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
widely used open-source WAF engine across Apache and Nginx deployments
Data Quality
8 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment Vendor GitHub VulDB

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.4%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
Yes
Human Impact· derived
Medium
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

26
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +26
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

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Vendor StatusVendor

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