Is CVE-2026-24516 actively exploited?

No active exploitation of CVE-2026-24516 has been confirmed so far. Continue monitoring, as exploit status can change.

Can CVE-2026-24516 be exploited remotely?

Yes. CVE-2026-24516 is exploitable remotely over the network (CVSS attack vector: Network).

What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-24516?

CVE-2026-24516 has a CVSS score of 8.8 (HIGH).

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HIGH

CVE-2026-24516

Published: March 23, 2026· Updated: Mar 24, 2026

8.8

CVSS v3.1

EPSS:0.23%probability of exploitation in 30 daysPercentile:45.3th

Official Description

A command injection vulnerability exists in DigitalOcean Droplet Agent through 1.3.2. The troubleshooting actioner component (internal/troubleshooting/actioner/actioner.go) processes metadata from the metadata service endpoint and executes commands specified in the TroubleshootingAgent.Requesting array without adequate input validation. While the code validates that artifacts exist in the validInvestigationArtifacts map, it fails to sanitize the actual command content after the "command:" prefix. This allows an attacker who can control metadata responses to inject and execute arbitrary OS commands with root privileges. The attack is triggered by sending a TCP packet with specific sequence numbers to the SSH port, which causes the agent to fetch metadata from http://169.254.169.254/metadata/v1.json. The vulnerability affects the command execution flow in internal/troubleshooting/actioner/actioner.go (insufficient validation), internal/troubleshooting/command/exec.go (direct exec.CommandContext call), and internal/troubleshooting/command/command.go (command parsing without sanitization). This can lead to complete system compromise, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, and potential lateral movement across cloud infrastructure.

NVD Source

Technical Analysis

CVE-2026-24516 can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring physical or adjacent access, significantly expanding the attack surface for threat actors.

Exploitation requires low privileges, which limits the exposure to scenarios where an attacker has already gained initial access.

A successful exploit results in complete confidentiality breach (data exposure), full integrity compromise (data manipulation), availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 8.8.