CVE-2026-106496 is a low-severity (CVSS 3.1) Path Traversal vulnerability in @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend. A fix is available for @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Backstage: Inconsistent enforcement of allowed location types during catalog processing
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-106496.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-106496 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
@backstage/plugin-catalog-backendReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects npm packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Backstage is an open framework for building developer portals. Prior to 3.9.1, the @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend package is affected by inconsistent enforcement of allowed location types during catalog processing. Under certain configurations, the catalog backend could process location types that were not intended to be allowed, potentially leading to unintended file access on the backend host. This issue is fixed in version 3.9.1.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend | all versions | 3.9.1npm install @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend@3.9.1 |
Affected Products
backstagelinuxfoundationbackstage plugin-catalog-backendlinuxfoundationDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend to 3.9.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-106496 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.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
This vulnerability is rated as Low severity for Red Hat products because triggering the flaw requires an authenticated user with permissions to submit catalog locations, alongside specific configuration prerequisites. Under standard deployments of Red Hat Developer Hub and Ansible Automation Platform, location…
To mitigate this restrict catalog processing boundaries by confining the application's filesystem access to intended directories only and strictly audit your configuration to remove any overly permissive or untrusted location types.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-106496 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-106496 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.