Path Traversal in GNU cpio

Summary

CVECVE-2026-66484
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerCERT-PL
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-08-10 11:17:27 UTC
Updated2026-08-10 12:17:20 UTC
DescriptionGNU cpio contains a Path Traversal vulnerability in its tar archive extraction functionality. When extracting a tar archive in copy-in mode with the --no-absolute-filenames option, the extracted file name is normalized but the tar hard-link target is passed to the link_to_name function without equivalent sanitization before calling link function. A tar archive provided by an attacker, containing a hard-link entry whose linkname is set to an absolute path outside the extraction directory, can cause cpio to create a hard link to an existing file outside the intended extraction directory, breaking the expected guarantee of --no-absolute-filenames and allowing archive-controlled linkage to external files. This issue has been fixed in commit e2b9cbdd3354d2b1569b7390d1bc15c1930559ad

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v4.0 4.6 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Problem Types: CWE-22 | CWE-22 CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
4.0[email protected]Secondary4.6MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/C...
4.0CNACVSS4.6MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N

CVSS v4.0 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
None
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Active
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None
Sub Conf.
None
Sub Integrity
Low
Sub Availability
None

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA GNU Cpio affected 2.15 custom Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
cert.pl/en/posts/2026/08/CVE-2026-66484 [email protected] cert.pl
git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/cpio.git [email protected] git.savannah.gnu.org
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Michał Majchrowicz (AFINE Team) (en)

CNA: Marcin Wyczechowski (AFINE Team) (en)

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