Plex Media Server External Control of File Name or Path Vulnerability

Plex Media Server

Plex Media Server contains an external control of file name or path vulnerability which can allow an admin user to write arbitrary files that may be executed on load. This vulnerability can be chained with CVE-2026-96652, CVE-2026-96654, and CVE-2026-96655. Can be chained with CVE-2026-96655, CVE-2026-96654, CVE-2026-96652. Added to CISA KEV on 2026-10-20 (federal deadline 2026-10-23).

First seen: 20 Oct 2026
Last update: 23 Oct 2026, 08:41 UTC
Identifiers: CVE-2026-96652
CVE-2026-96654
CVE-2026-96655
CVE-2026-96656
CVSS: 6.9
Source: CISA KEV
On the menu as: Homelab apps
PHP

Check this repository for exposure to one security incident from pwned.coffee. Report first, change nothing until I say so.

## Plex Media Server External Control of File Name or Path Vulnerability
Severity: high, exploited in the wild. Patch status: no fix yet.
Affected: Plex Media Server
Ids: CVE-2026-96652, CVE-2026-96654, CVE-2026-96655, CVE-2026-96656

Plex Media Server contains an external control of file name or path vulnerability which can allow an admin user to write arbitrary files that may be executed on load. This vulnerability can be chained with CVE-2026-96652, CVE-2026-96654, and CVE-2026-96655. Can be chained with CVE-2026-96655, CVE-2026-96654, CVE-2026-96652. Added to CISA KEV on 2026-10-20 (federal deadline 2026-10-23).

## Steps
1. This touches infrastructure (self-hosted). Look in terraform, ansible, cloud-init, Dockerfiles and docs for the product and version we run. If it isn't in the repo, say so and list what a human should check on the box.
2. There is no fix yet. Until one ships: Plex Media Server contains an external control of file name or path vulnerability which can allow an admin user to write arbitrary files that may be executed on load. This vulnerability can be chained with CVE-2026-96652, CVE-2026-96654, and CVE-2026-96655. Can be chained with CVE-2026-96655, CVE-2026-96654, CVE-2026-96652. Added to CISA KEV on 2026-10-20 (federal deadline 2026-10-23).

## Report
A table: file, product or package, version in use, affected yes/no, exact fix. Then anything a human has to check outside the repo.

If you have the pwned.coffee MCP server (https://pwned.coffee/mcp), call lookup_cve("CVE-2026-96652") for the latest, and check_repo with this repo's lockfiles, Dockerfiles and workflows for a full receipt.
Sources: https://forums.plex.tv/t/important-security-update-for-plex-media-server-v1-43-2-and-earlier/942319 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-96652 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-96654 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-96655 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-96656 https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/cisa-orders-federal-agencies-to-patch.html
https://pwned.coffee/i/plex-media-server-external-control-of-file-name-or-path-vulnerability

Timeline

23 Oct 2026, 08:41 UTC
CISA adds vulnerabilities to Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
20 Oct 2026
First reported.

Sources

Totalone hot coffee