Kimai up to 2.55.x SetAssociatedFiles path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Kimai up to 2.55.x. This affects the function SetAssociatedFiles. The manipulation leads to path traversal. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2026-44298. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Kimai up to 2.55.x and classified as problematic. This issue affects the function SetAssociatedFiles. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-22. The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Impacted is confidentiality. The summary by CVE is:

Kimai is an open-source time tracking application. From version 2.32.0 to before version 2.56.0, users with the role System-Admin (ROLE_SYSTE_ADMIN) and the permission upload_invoice_template can upload PDF invoice templates, which can call pdfContext.setOption('associated_files', ...) inside the sandboxed Twig render. This is forwarded to mPDF's SetAssociatedFiles(), whose writer calls file_get_contents($entry['path']) during PDF output and embeds the bytes as a FlateDecode stream in the PDF. Any file readable by the PHP worker is returned to the attacker inside the rendered invoice. This issue has been patched in version 2.56.0.

The advisory is shared at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-44298 since 05/05/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. The exploitation requires an enhanced level of successful authentication. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1006 for this issue.

Upgrading to version 2.56.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Name

• Kimai

Version

• 2.0
• 2.1
• 2.2
• 2.3
• 2.4
• 2.5
• 2.6
• 2.7
• 2.8
• 2.9
• 2.10
• 2.11
• 2.12
• 2.13
• 2.14
• 2.15
• 2.16
• 2.17
• 2.18
• 2.19
• 2.20
• 2.21
• 2.22
• 2.23
• 2.24
• 2.25
• 2.26
• 2.27
• 2.28
• 2.29
• 2.30
• 2.31
• 2.32
• 2.33
• 2.34
• 2.35
• 2.36
• 2.37
• 2.38
• 2.39
• 2.40
• 2.41
• 2.42
• 2.43
• 2.44
• 2.45
• 2.46
• 2.47
• 2.48
• 2.49
• 2.50
• 2.51
• 2.52
• 2.53
• 2.54
• 2.55

Website

• Product: https://github.com/kimai/kimai/

CPE 2.3info

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