CVE-2026-44521 — studio-42/elfinder
HIGHCVE-2026-44521 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) SQL Injection vulnerability in studio-42/elfinder. A fix is available for studio-42/elfinder — see the affected versions and patch details below.
elFinder: SQL Injection MySQL Volume Driver (elFinderVolumeMySQL)
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- 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-2026-44521.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-44521 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
studio-42/elfinderReal-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
Summary
An authenticated SQL injection vulnerability in the elFinder MySQL volume driver (elFinderVolumeMySQL) allows any logged-in user, including users with read-only access to the affected volume, to inject SQL through a crafted target file hash. Successful exploitation can lead to unauthorized data disclosure and denial of service.
This vulnerability only affects installations configured to use the MySQL volume driver. Installations using the default LocalFileSystem driver are not affected.
Description
A vulnerability in elFinder's MySQL volume driver (elFinderVolumeMySQL) allows authenticated SQL injection through a crafted file hash passed via the target parameter.
The issue is caused by two behaviors working together:
- File hashes are decoded without validating that the decoded value is a valid MySQL object identifier.
- The decoded value is then used in MySQL driver queries, including
cacheDir(),_joinPath(),_stat(), and_fopen().
Because the MySQL storage schema uses numeric id and parent_id values, an authenticated user can supply a crafted hash that alters the intended SQL query logic. Successful exploitation can lead to unauthorized data disclosure and denial of service. The extent of impact depends on the privileges granted to the configured MySQL account.
This vulnerability only affects installations configured to use the MySQL volume driver. Installations using the default LocalFileSystem driver are not affected.
Impact
An authenticated user, including a user with read-only access to the affected volume, can exploit this issue to:
- disclose data accessible to the configured MySQL account, including file contents stored by the driver and database metadata
- trigger denial of service through expensive or unexpectedly broad query results that can lead to excessive memory consumption
The severity of data exposure depends on the privileges granted to the configured MySQL account.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | studio-42/elfinder | all versions | 2.1.68composer require studio-42/elfinder:^2.1.68 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for studio-42/elfinder, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update studio-42/elfinder to 2.1.68 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-44521 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-44521 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-44521. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-44521 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-44521 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.