# CVE-2026-74796 — opentofu

> As of 2026-08-17, CVE-2026-74796 is a MEDIUM-severity vulnerability in opentofu, CVSS v3.1 6.1, EPSS 0.2% (13.8th percentile). No Threadlinqs-tracked threat campaign has been attributed to CVE-2026-74796 as of 2026-08-17; the identifier is re-checked against the Threadlinqs threat corpus on every daily ingest.

**Last updated:** 2026-08-17

## What is CVE-2026-74796?

OpenTofu before 1.11.7 fails to validate existing symlinks in the provider cache directory during initialization. Attackers can place a malicious symlink in a trusted working directory to cause tofu init to write provider package contents to arbitrary filesystem locations outside the working tree.

The record classifies CVE-2026-74796 under weakness class [CWE-59](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cwe/CWE-59). Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw is reachable remotely over the network, needs no prior authentication, needs a user to take an action first, and has high impact on integrity. 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 50 days ago.

## Severity and exploitation probability

- **CVSS v3.1 base score:** 6.1 — MEDIUM (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **CVSS v4.0 base score:** 7 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:H/SA:N`)
- **EPSS (FIRST):** 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 13.8% of all scored CVEs
- **CISA KEV:** Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- **Threadlinqs priority:** 3.6/10 — a Threadlinqs composite of the CVSS base score, the EPSS percentile and public exploit availability
- **Published:** 2026-08-16, last modified 2026-08-17

## Is CVE-2026-74796 being exploited?

It currently carries a trending score of 33 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

## Affected products and versions

- **opentofu**: opentofu

## How to fix CVE-2026-74796

No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-74796 in the tracked sources. Follow the references below for a fix, and treat the products listed above as exposed until the vendor states otherwise.

## Threat activity tracking CVE-2026-74796

No threat campaign in the Threadlinqs corpus currently references CVE-2026-74796, in its CVE list or as an indicator. The linkage is recomputed from the live corpus on every daily ingest, so this section fills in as soon as a tracked campaign cites the identifier.

## Sources

Enriched from CVE.org, FIRST EPSS. Last verified by Threadlinqs on 2026-08-17.

**Vendor advisory and patch**

- [github.com — vendor advisory](https://github.com/opentofu/opentofu/security/advisories/GHSA-wcmj-x466-56mm)

**Third-party advisory**

- [vulncheck.com — third party advisory](https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/opentofu-before-symlink-following-path-traversal)

Canonical: https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cve/CVE-2026-74796
Full detection coverage and IOCs for threats exploiting CVE-2026-74796 via the Threadlinqs MCP server (Purple tier): https://intel.threadlinqs.com/mcp