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CVE-2026-42162 – Broken Access Control / Sensitive File Disclosure – Mahara before 25.04.5 and 26.04

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Summary

CVE-2026-42162 is a path traversal / incorrect access control vulnerability in Mahara, the open-source ePortfolio platform. By manipulating the file path to an artefact referenced in a Mahara page, an unauthenticated remote attacker can cause artefacts (files) belonging to one account holder to become accessible to another party under certain circumstances. The issue is rated CRITICAL with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.1.

Technical details

  • Root cause: improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory (CWE-22) when resolving the file path to an artefact embedded in a Mahara page.
  • Trigger condition: an attacker manipulates the file path referencing an artefact within a page, causing the application to serve an artefact that should belong to a different account holder.
  • Attack vector: network-based, requires no privileges and no user interaction (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N).
  • Impact: high confidentiality impact and high integrity impact, with no reported impact on availability — resulting in unauthorized disclosure and potential exposure of files/artefacts belonging to other users.

Affected software

  • Mahara versions prior to 25.04.5
  • Mahara version 26.04.0

Severity

  • CVSS v3.1 Base Score: 9.1 (Critical)
  • Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Upgrade to Mahara 25.04.5 or later, or to Mahara 26.04.0-fixed release (per the official Mahara security announcement), whichever branch is in use.
  • For deployments on unsupported Mahara release lines, upgrade to a currently supported release before applying the fix.
  • If immediate patching is not possible, restrict external network access to the Mahara instance and review artefact/file access logs for anomalous path manipulation attempts referencing artefacts in pages.
  • Subscribers to Mahara extended security support should consult their support provider for backported fixes on unsupported branches.

How IONIX identifies potentially affected assets

IONIX matches the following signals against data already collected when it crawled the asset; identifying the technology sends no request beyond that crawl.

  • Meta tag generator: Mahara (optionally followed by a version number)
  • Response header set-cookie: mahara=

References

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Map your entire attack surface (continously)

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4

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IONIX transforms real-world PoCs into safe, non-intrusive test payloads that can be run in production environments without disruption. These simulations are precisely targeted to the systems that are vulnerable, ensuring rapid validation without unnecessary load.

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By combining context about software stack, versioning, exposure status, and reachability, IONIX ensures that only the right payloads are executed against the right assets, maximizing efficiency and minimizing risk.

6

Drive Fast and Actionable Remediation

Results are routed through integrations with ticketing, SOAR, and SIEM tools. Issues are written in plain language, bundled into remediation clusters, and prioritized based on asset criticality, exploitability, and blast radius. This shortens mean time to remediation (MTTR) and empowers teams to act with confidence.

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