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Attack ChainAIDerived

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

  1. Access
    Reach exposed pmproxy port
  2. Delivery
    Craft HTTP request with traversal hostname
  3. Exploit
    Logger servlet writes to traversal path
  4. Execution
    Create files outside logging root
  5. Persist
    Exhaust disk or corrupt directory
  6. Impact
    Deny service to dependent processes

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V5 - File Handling Path canonicalization, traversal prevention
MITRE ATT&CK

2 techniques across 2 tactics: Discovery, Collection

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires only that the pmproxy service is network-reachable and its logger servlet is active - no authentication, no user interaction, and no non-default configuration is required, consistent with the CVSS:3.1 PR:N/UI:N/AC:L vector. The limiting factor is network exposure: pmproxy must be reachable by the attacker, which is the default on any host running PCP where the port is not firewalled. Exploitation is constrained to file and directory creation only - no file read, no code execution - which limits the severity of any single exploit attempt. The practical DoS path requires repeated or high-volume requests to fill disk space or corrupt a critical directory structure. RHEL systems where pmproxy is not installed or not running are not affected.

Impact

The CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.3 (Medium) reflects AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N - network-accessible, low complexity, no authentication, no confidentiality impact. The unauthenticated network vector and low attack complexity make this reachable by any attacker with network access to the pmproxy port, which is a meaningful exposure factor on externally facing or shared infrastructure. However, impact is constrained: exploitation yields only arbitrary file and directory creation, not file read or code execution. The official CVSS assigns A:N despite the description explicitly acknowledging denial-of-service potential via disk exhaustion or directory corruption - this appears to underweight the availability risk. No EPSS data was provided in the intelligence set, and the vulnerability is absent from the CISA KEV catalog. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis. Combined, this is a real but low-urgency issue: prioritize patching on hosts where pmproxy is internet-exposed or where disk exhaustion has operational impact (e.g., logging servers, monitoring nodes).

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An unauthenticated attacker with network access to the pmproxy service submits an HTTP request to the logger servlet endpoint using a crafted hostname value containing path traversal sequences such as '../../etc/cron.d/malicious'. The servlet processes the hostname without sanitization and creates the specified path on the filesystem, potentially writing a directory or file to a sensitive location outside the logging root. Repeated exploitation with disk-filling filenames could exhaust available filesystem space, crashing dependent services and causing a denial of service condition. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
No patch listed yet 0.4% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Jul 30, 2026

Path traversal in the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) pmproxy logger servlet on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10 and OpenShift Container Platform 4 permits unauthenticated remote attackers to create arbitrary files and directories on the host filesystem by supplying a crafted hostname value in requests to the service. The primitive is write-only - no file contents can be read - but an attacker can abuse it to corrupt directory structures or exhaust disk space, leading to denial of service. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

RemediationAI

Consult the Red Hat advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-16531 for updated PCP packages across affected RHEL versions; no specific patched package version number was confirmed from the available intelligence, so use the errata as the authoritative source. For RHEL systems subscribed to Red Hat Satellite or CDN, run 'yum update pcp' or 'dnf update pcp' and restart the pmproxy service. On OpenShift Container Platform 4, follow the advisory guidance for updated operator or image versions. As a compensating control if immediate patching is not possible, restrict network access to the pmproxy port (default TCP 44322) using firewalld or network ACLs to trusted monitoring hosts only - note this will limit PCP telemetry collection from untrusted segments. Disabling the pmproxy service entirely ('systemctl disable --now pmproxy') is a higher-impact but effective workaround on hosts where PCP proxying is not operationally required.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

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

Technical ContextAI · show details

Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) is a system performance monitoring and analysis framework distributed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux across all major versions (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) and packaged in OpenShift Container Platform 4. The pmproxy daemon acts as a protocol proxy and REST gateway for PCP metrics. Its logger servlet processes client-supplied hostname values and uses them in filesystem operations without adequate sanitization. CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory) identifies the root cause: user-controlled input containing path traversal sequences (e.g., '../') is not neutralized before being used to construct filesystem paths, allowing the logger to create files or directories outside the intended logging directory. CPE strings confirm the vulnerability spans cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_6 through cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_10 and cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_openshift_container_platform_4.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Sources disagree (Medium–Critical)
Vendor (redhat) PRIMARY 5.3 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
vuln.today AI 6.5 MEDIUM

Network-reachable with no auth; retaining I:L and upgrading A:N to A:L because the description explicitly identifies denial of service via filesystem exhaustion as a realized impact.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE CRITICAL
Red Hat 5.3 MEDIUM

vuln.today treats the vendor’s rating as authoritative. A higher third-party CVSS (e.g. CISA-ADP) is shown for transparency but does not drive the headline severity.

CVSS VectorVendor: redhat

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

DescriptionCVE.org

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit a path traversal vulnerability in the PCP pmproxy logger servlet using a crafted hostname. This allows arbitrary file and directory creation, potentially leading to a denial of service.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.4%
Top 72% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
PCP bundled with RHEL but not universally enabled in production
Data Quality
6 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment Vendor 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 No
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

Path traversal exploits occur when applications use user-controlled input to construct file system paths without proper validation.

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org

cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_openshift_container_platform_4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Critical
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 Affected

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