CVE-2026-38992 — cockpit
CRITICALCVE-2026-38992 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Code Injection vulnerability in cockpit-hq/cockpit. A fix is available for cockpit-hq/cockpit — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cockpit is vulnerable to arbitrary code execution
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.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-38992.
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
cockpit-hq/cockpitReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Cockpit versions 2.13.5 and earlier are vulnerable to arbitrary code execution via the filter parameter within multiple endpoints. This vulnerability allows an attacker to run system commands on the underlying infrastructure via the MongoLite $func operator.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | cockpit-hq/cockpit | all versions | 2.14.0composer require cockpit-hq/cockpit:^2.14.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cockpit-hq/cockpit, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update cockpit-hq/cockpit to 2.14.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-38992 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-38992 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.