CVE-2025-36598: Dell Avamar Path Traversal Vulnerability

CVE-2025-36598 Overview

Dell Avamar, versions prior to 19.12 with patch 338905, contains an Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory (Path Traversal) vulnerability in the Security component. A high privileged attacker with remote access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to the upload of malicious files to arbitrary directories on the affected system.

Critical Impact

Successful exploitation allows authenticated attackers with high privileges to upload malicious files via path traversal, potentially compromising system integrity and availability.

Affected Products

• Dell Avamar versions prior to 19.12 with patch 338905
• Dell Avamar Virtual Edition versions prior to 19.12 with patch 338905

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-02-17 - CVE-2025-36598 published to NVD
• 2026-02-18 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-36598

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory), commonly known as Path Traversal or Directory Traversal. The flaw exists within the Security component of Dell Avamar and allows an authenticated attacker with high privileges to manipulate file path inputs to escape the intended restricted directory structure.

When successfully exploited, an attacker can traverse directory boundaries using sequences such as ../ or similar path manipulation techniques to upload malicious files to locations outside the intended upload directory. This could enable the attacker to overwrite critical system files, plant web shells, or stage additional attack payloads on the target system.

The vulnerability requires network access and high privileges to exploit, which provides some inherent limitations on the attack surface. However, once an attacker has obtained the necessary privileges, exploitation is straightforward with low attack complexity.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability lies in insufficient validation and sanitization of user-supplied file path inputs within the Dell Avamar Security component. The application fails to properly restrict path traversal sequences (such as ../ or encoded variants) before processing file upload operations. This allows attackers to craft malicious path strings that escape the intended directory and write files to arbitrary locations on the file system.

Attack Vector

The attack is conducted remotely over the network by an authenticated attacker with high privileges. The attacker exploits the path traversal vulnerability by submitting specially crafted file upload requests containing directory traversal sequences in the filename or path parameter.

The attacker manipulates the file path to include traversal sequences such as ../../../etc/ or URL-encoded variants to navigate outside the designated upload directory. When the server processes the upload request without proper path validation, the malicious file is written to the attacker-specified location.

This can result in overwriting configuration files, planting executable payloads, or creating persistence mechanisms on the compromised system. The impact affects both the integrity and availability of the target system.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-36598

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected files appearing in system directories outside normal upload locations
• Web server logs showing requests with path traversal sequences (../, ..%2f, %2e%2e/) in upload parameters
• Suspicious file uploads to sensitive directories such as /etc/, /var/, or web root directories
• Modified configuration files with unexpected timestamps

Detection Strategies

• Monitor HTTP request logs for path traversal patterns in file upload requests targeting Dell Avamar endpoints
• Implement file integrity monitoring (FIM) on critical system directories to detect unauthorized file creation or modification
• Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block path traversal sequences in request parameters
• Review Dell Avamar Security component logs for anomalous file upload activity

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging on Dell Avamar servers and forward logs to a SIEM for analysis
• Configure alerts for file system changes in protected directories on Avamar servers
• Monitor network traffic for unusual file upload patterns to Dell Avamar management interfaces
• Implement baseline monitoring for privileged user activity on Dell Avamar systems

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-36598

Immediate Actions Required

• Apply Dell Avamar version 19.12 with patch 338905 immediately to remediate this vulnerability
• Review file systems on Dell Avamar servers for any suspicious or unexpected files that may indicate prior exploitation
• Audit privileged account access to Dell Avamar and ensure least privilege principles are enforced
• Restrict network access to Dell Avamar management interfaces to authorized administrators only

Patch Information

Dell has released a security update to address this vulnerability. Organizations running affected versions should upgrade to Dell Avamar version 19.12 with patch 338905 or later. The security advisory Dell Security Update DSA-2025-271 provides complete patch download and installation instructions.

Workarounds

• Implement network segmentation to limit access to Dell Avamar management interfaces from untrusted networks
• Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) to filter path traversal patterns in requests to Dell Avamar
• Enforce strict access controls and regularly audit privileged accounts with access to Dell Avamar
• Enable additional logging and monitoring on Avamar servers until patches can be applied

# Restrict network access to Dell Avamar management interface (example firewall rule)
# Allow only trusted administrator networks to access Avamar management port
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -s 10.0.0.0/24 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j DROP