Sos: sos: path traversal in sos clean tar extraction via unvalidated symlink/hardlink targets leads to arbitrary file write

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-79655
StatePUBLISHED
Assignerredhat
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-08-25 14:16:58 UTC
Updated2026-08-25 14:16:58 UTC
DescriptionA flaw was found in sos clean, a utility within the sos package. This vulnerability allows a local attacker to perform arbitrary file creation or overwrite. By crafting a malicious tar archive, an attacker can exploit a path traversal issue during tar extraction, where symlink and hardlink targets are not properly validated. This enables the attacker to write files to arbitrary locations on the system with the privileges of the sos clean process, which often runs as root.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 7.8 HIGH from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Problem Types: CWE-59 | CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Primary7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNACVSS7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Not specified Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/sosreport/sos/issues/4460 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 github.com
access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-79655 [email protected] access.redhat.com
github.com/sosreport/sos/pull/4461 [email protected] github.com
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi [email protected] bugzilla.redhat.com
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: This issue was discovered by Sandipan Roy (Red Hat). (en)

Additional Advisory Data

SourceTimeEvent
CNA2026-08-25T00:00:00.000ZReported to Red Hat.
CNA2026-08-21T08:00:00.000ZMade public.

Workarounds

CNA: To mitigate this issue, avoid using the `sos clean` utility to extract tar archives from untrusted or unknown sources. This vulnerability requires user interaction to process a specially crafted archive.

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