CVE-2023-36822 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Path Traversal vulnerability in uptime-kuma. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for uptime-kuma — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Uptime Kuma authenticated path traversal via plugin repository name may lead to unavailability or data loss
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-36822.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
uptime-kumanpmDescription
Summary
A path traversal vulnerability via the plugin repository name allows an authenticated attacker to delete files on the server leading to unavailability and potentially data loss.
Details
Uptime Kuma allows authenticated users to install plugins from an official list of plugins. This feature is currently disabled in the web interface, but the corresponding API endpoints are still available after login. Before a plugin is downloaded, the plugin installation directory is checked for existence. If it exists, it's removed before the plugin installation.
Because the plugin is not validated against the official list of plugins or sanitized, the check for existence and the removal of the plugin installation directory are prone to path traversal.
Impact
This vulnerability allows an authenticated attacker to delete files from the server Uptime Kuma is running on. Depending on which files are deleted, Uptime Kuma or the whole system may become unavailable due to data loss.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | uptime-kuma | all versions | 1.22.1npm install uptime-kuma@1.22.1 |
Affected Products
uptime-kumauptime-kuma_projectResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for uptime-kuma, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update uptime-kuma to 1.22.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-36822 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-36822 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.