October 20, 2026 · Applied Cybernetics Group
CVE-2026-96656 Plex Media Server
Plex Media Server External Control of File Name or Path Vulnerability
- Added to KEV
2026-10-20- Federal due date
2026-10-23- Vendor
- Plex
- Product
- Media Server
- EPSS
- 78.4th percentile (score 0.018, as of
2026-11-06) - NVD CVSS v3.1
- 7.2 (HIGH)
- Ransomware use
- Unknown
- Upstream
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-96656
CISA short description
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.
Required action
Apply mitigations in accordance with vendor instructions, ensuring compliance with CISA’s BOD 26-04 Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk (see URL in Notes) guidance and CISA’s “Forensics Triage Requirements” (see URL in Notes). Follow applicable BOD 26-04 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset's internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.
NVD description
Plex Media Server before 1.43.3.10861 allows an admin user to write arbitrary files that may be executed on load. The preference TranscoderH264Options is appended verbatim to x264's option string on every transcode. At startup, all .so files are run without signature, execute bit, or symbol checks.