CVE intelligence

CVE-2026-81849

Vulnerability intelligence

Published Aug 28, 2026Sources checked Oct 27, 2026

8.8HIGHCVSS out of 10

What this means

Review the available evidence

CVE-2026-81849 and is rated High severity with a CVSS score of 8.8. It is not in the current CISA KEV record we collected. That does not prove exploitation has not occurred.

What to do next

Remediation and response

AWS Security Bulletins guidance

Vendor revision: Oct 21, 2026

Amazon-ssm-agent makes it possible for Systems Manager to update, manage, and configure these resources.

CISA KEVNot listedBased on the latest collected catalog

EPSS0.9%Estimated 30-day exploitation probability

Ransomware useNot markedCISA KEV ransomware field

Threat actors0Source-linked actor relationships

Overview

What is CVE-2026-81849?

Improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory in the aws:downloadContent plugin in amazon-ssm-agent before 3.3.4515.0 might allow an authenticated remote user whose ssm:SendCommand permission is restricted to the AWS-DownloadContent document, to write arbitrary files outside the intended download directory with root privileges, via crafted object keys in the S3 source the document is directed to retrieve.

This issue may lead to arbitrary code execution as root if specific sensitive files are overwritten.

To remediate this issue, customers should upgrade amazon-ssm-agent to version 3.3.4515.0 or later.

Source: NVD