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CVE-2026-49986

Vulnerability in neuro-cortex-memory (CVE-2026-49986)

Summary

Vulnerability in neuro-cortex-memory (CVE-2026-49986). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Exploitable via CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR. Mitigation: upgrade to 3.18.0 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

Untrusted Project Bootstrap Code Execution via CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR

Summary

The Cortex MCP server (neuro-cortex-memory) treats the CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR environment variable — automatically set by Claude Code to the currently open project directory — as a trusted Cortex developer checkout. When the open_visualization tool is invoked, _find_dev_source() resolves the user's active project directory as a candidate Cortex source root. The only validation performed by _is_cortex_root() is a check for the presence of an mcp_server/ subdirectory and a ui/unified-viz.html file. An attacker who places these two marker files in a malicious repository can cause Cortex to execute an arbitrary mcp_server/server/visualize_bootstrap.py from that directory via subprocess.run([sys.executable, ...]), achieving code execution with the privileges of the victim's local user process. CVSS v3.1 Base Score: 7.8 (High).

Details

The vulnerability originates in _find_dev_source() inside mcp_server/handlers/open_visualization.py. The function builds a list of candidate directories by iterating over the environment variables CORTEX_DEV_ROOT and CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:

# mcp_server/handlers/open_visualization.py:73-76
for env in ("CORTEX_DEV_ROOT", "CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR"):
    v = os.environ.get(env)
    if v:
        candidates.append(Path(v))

CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR is set automatically by the Claude Code IDE extension to whichever directory the user has…

Source: GitHub Security Advisories (Global) NVD GitHub Advisory

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-49986 has been found in neuro-cortex-memory.
Attackers can target a specific entry point like CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR over the network to misuse the product.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade neuro-cortex-memory to 3.18.0 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "neuro-cortex-memory CVE-2026-49986" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2026-49986 (neuro-cortex-memory) — CWE-829
Attack surface: CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR / open_visualization / CORTEX_DEV_ROOT / rsync
Patched: 3.18.0 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (CWE-829) exists in neuro-cortex-memory. Attackers reach the vulnerable code path via CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of neuro-cortex-memory. Attack surface: CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR / open_visualization / CORTEX_DEV_ROOT / rsync.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 3.18.0.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'neuro-cortex-memory' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

  1. 1
    Identify exposure identify 
    grep -r 'neuro-cortex-memory' . | grep -v node_modules

    リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で neuro-cortex-memory を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。

  2. 2
    Apply patch patch 
    Upgrade neuro-cortex-memory to 3.18.0

    ステージング環境で 3.18.0 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。

  3. 3
    Post-deployment verification verify 
    Confirm patched version is live in production

    パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

pip neuro-cortex-memory
[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"3.18.0"}]}]
PyPI neuro-cortex-memory
[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"3.18.0"}]}]

References

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