CWE-61

Judge0 is an open-source online code execution system. The application uses the UNIX chown command on an untrusted file within the sandbox. An attacker can abuse this by creating a symbolic link (symlink) to a file outside the sandbox, allowing the attacker to run chown on arbitrary files outside of the sandbox. This vulnerability is not impactful on it's own, but it can be used to bypass the patch for CVE-2024-28185 and obtain a complete sandbox escape. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.13.1.

Judge0 is an open-source online code execution system. The application does not account for symlinks placed inside the sandbox directory, which can be leveraged by an attacker to write to arbitrary files and gain code execution outside of the sandbox. When executing a submission, Judge0 writes a `run_script` to the sandbox directory. The security issue is that an attacker can create a symbolic link (symlink) at the path `run_script` before this code is executed, resulting in the `f.write` writing to an arbitrary file on the unsandboxed system. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to overwrite scripts on the system and gain code execution outside of the sandbox.

The kubectl cp command allows copying files between containers and the user machine. To copy files from a container, Kubernetes runs tar inside the container to create a tar archive, copies it over the network, and kubectl unpacks it on the user’s machine. If the tar binary in the container is malicious, it could run any code and output unexpected, malicious results. An attacker could use this to write files to any path on the user’s machine when kubectl cp is called, limited only by the system permissions of the local user. Kubernetes affected versions include versions prior to 1.13.9, versions prior to 1.14.5, versions prior to 1.15.2, and versions 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12.

The kubectl cp command allows copying files between containers and the user machine. To copy files from a container, Kubernetes runs tar inside the container to create a tar archive, copies it over the network, and kubectl unpacks it on the user’s machine. If the tar binary in the container is malicious, it could run any code and output unexpected, malicious results. An attacker could use this to write files to any path on the user’s machine when kubectl cp is called, limited only by the system permissions of the local user. Kubernetes affected versions include versions prior to 1.12.9, versions prior to 1.13.6, versions prior to 1.14.2, and versions 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11.

Versions of the npm CLI prior to 6.13.3 are vulnerable to an Arbitrary File Write. It is possible for packages to create symlinks to files outside of thenode_modules folder through the bin field upon installation. A properly constructed entry in the package.json bin field would allow a package publisher to create a symlink pointing to arbitrary files on a user's system when the package is installed. This behavior is still possible through install scripts. This vulnerability bypasses a user using the --ignore-scripts install option.

A symlink following vulnerability was found in Samba, where a user can create a symbolic link that will make 'smbd' escape the configured share path. This flaw allows a remote user with access to the exported part of the file system under a share via SMB1 unix extensions or NFS to create symlinks to files outside the 'smbd' configured share path and gain access to another restricted server's filesystem.

The Kubernetes kubectl cp command in versions 1.1-1.12, and versions prior to 1.13.11, 1.14.7, and 1.15.4 allows a combination of two symlinks provided by tar output of a malicious container to place a file outside of the destination directory specified in the kubectl cp invocation. This could be used to allow an attacker to place a nefarious file using a symlink, outside of the destination tree.

Plexis Archiver is a collection of Plexus components to create archives or extract archives to a directory with a unified `Archiver`/`UnArchiver` API. Prior to version 4.8.0, using AbstractUnArchiver for extracting an archive might lead to an arbitrary file creation and possibly remote code execution. When extracting an archive with an entry that already exists in the destination directory as a symbolic link whose target does not exist - the `resolveFile()` function will return the symlink's source instead of its target, which will pass the verification that ensures the file will not be extracted outside of the destination directory. Later `Files.newOutputStream()`, that follows symlinks by default, will actually write the entry's content to the symlink's target. Whoever uses plexus archiver to extract an untrusted archive is vulnerable to an arbitrary file creation and possibly remote code execution. Version 4.8.0 contains a patch for this issue.

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in ReFirm Labs binwalk up to 2.3.2. Affected is an unknown function of the file src/binwalk/modules/extractor.py of the component Archive Extraction Handler. The manipulation leads to symlink following. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. Upgrading to version 2.3.3 is able to address this issue. The name of the patch is fa0c0bd59b8588814756942fe4cb5452e76c1dcd. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component. The identifier of this vulnerability is VDB-216876.

A vulnerability in share_link in QSAN Storage Manager allows remote attackers to create a symbolic link then access arbitrary files. The referred vulnerability has been solved with the updated version of QSAN Storage Manager v3.3.3.

Flatpak is a Linux application sandboxing and distribution framework. Prior to 1.16.4, the Flatpak portal accepts paths in the sandbox-expose options which can be app-controlled symlinks pointing at arbitrary paths. Flatpak run mounts the resolved host path in the sandbox. This gives apps access to all host files and can be used as a primitive to gain code execution in the host context. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.16.4.

Absolute Path Traversal vulnerability in FileviewDoc in QSAN Storage Manager allows remote authenticated attackers access arbitrary files by injecting the Symbolic Link following the Url path parameter. The referred vulnerability has been solved with the updated version of QSAN Storage Manager v3.3.3.

Absolute Path Traversal vulnerability in FileStreaming in QSAN Storage Manager allows remote authenticated attackers access arbitrary files by injecting the Symbolic Link following the Url path parameter. The referred vulnerability has been solved with the updated version of QSAN Storage Manager v3.3.3.

A vulnerability in the Secure FTP (SFTP) of Cisco StarOS for Cisco ASR 5000 Series Routers could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to read arbitrary files on an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker would need to have valid credentials on the affected device. The vulnerability is due to insecure handling of symbolic links. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted SFTP command to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to read arbitrary files on the affected device.

Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. Argo CD starting with version 0.7.0 and prior to versions 2.1.15m 2.2.9, and 2.3.4 is vulnerable to a symlink following bug allowing a malicious user with repository write access to leak sensitive files from Argo CD's repo-server. A malicious Argo CD user with write access for a repository which is (or may be) used in a directory-type Application may commit a symlink which points to an out-of-bounds file. Sensitive files which could be leaked include manifest files from other Applications' source repositories (potentially decrypted files, if you are using a decryption plugin) or any JSON-formatted secrets which have been mounted as files on the repo-server. A patch for this vulnerability has been released in Argo CD versions 2.3.4, 2.2.9, and 2.1.15. Users of versions 2.3.0 or above who do not have any Jsonnet/directory-type Applications may disable the Jsonnet/directory config management tool as a workaround.

There's a vulnerability in podman where an attacker may use the kube play command to overwrite host files when the kube file container a Secrete or a ConfigMap volume mount and such volume contains a symbolic link to a host file path. In a successful attack, the attacker can only control the target file to be overwritten but not the content to be written into the file. Binary-Affected: podman Upstream-version-introduced: v4.0.0 Upstream-version-fixed: v5.6.1

A race condition in the postgresql init script could be used by attackers able to access the postgresql account to escalate their privileges to root.

Gogs is an open source self-hosted Git service. A malicious user is able to commit and edit a crafted symlink file to a repository to gain SSH access to the server. The vulnerability is fixed in 0.13.1.

Using Codex CLI in workspace-write mode inside a malicious context (repo, directory, etc) could lead to arbitrary file overwrite and potentially remote code execution due to symlinks being followed outside the allowed current working directory.

readline.sh in socat before1.8.0.2 relies on the /tmp/$USER/stderr2 file.

An issue discovered in 360 Total Security Antivirus through 11.0.0.1061 for Windows allows attackers to gain escalated privileges via Symbolic Link Follow to Arbitrary File Delete.

Jenkins 2.554 and earlier, LTS 2.541.2 and earlier does not safely handle symbolic links during the extraction of .tar and .tar.gz archives, allowing crafted archives to write files to arbitrary locations on the filesystem, restricted only by file system access permissions of the user running Jenkins. This can be exploited to deploy malicious scripts or plugins on the controller by attackers with Item/Configure permission, or able to control agent processes.

Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. All versions of Argo CD starting with v1.3.0 are vulnerable to a symlink following bug allowing a malicious user with repository write access to leak sensitive YAML files from Argo CD's repo-server. A malicious Argo CD user with write access for a repository which is (or may be) used in a Helm-type Application may commit a symlink which points to an out-of-bounds file. If the target file is a valid YAML file, the attacker can read the contents of that file. Sensitive files which could be leaked include manifest files from other Applications' source repositories (potentially decrypted files, if you are using a decryption plugin) or any YAML-formatted secrets which have been mounted as files on the repo-server. Patches for this vulnerability has been released in the following Argo CD versions: v2.4.1, v2.3.5, v2.2.10 and v2.1.16. If you are using a version >=v2.3.0 and do not have any Helm-type Applications you may disable the Helm config management tool as a workaround.

Wings is Pterodactyl's server control plane. Affected versions are subject to a vulnerability which can be used to create new files and directory structures on the host system that previously did not exist, potentially allowing attackers to change their resource allocations, promote their containers to privileged mode, or potentially add ssh authorized keys to allow the attacker access to a remote shell on the target machine. In order to use this exploit, an attacker must have an existing "server" allocated and controlled by the Wings Daemon. This vulnerability has been resolved in version `v1.11.3` of the Wings Daemon, and has been back-ported to the 1.7 release series in `v1.7.3`. Anyone running `v1.11.x` should upgrade to `v1.11.3` and anyone running `v1.7.x` should upgrade to `v1.7.3`. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability. ### Workarounds None at this time.

runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. In versions 1.2.7 and below, 1.3.0-rc.1 through 1.3.1, 1.4.0-rc.1 and 1.4.0-rc.2 files, runc would not perform sufficient verification that the source of the bind-mount (i.e., the container's /dev/null) was actually a real /dev/null inode when using the container's /dev/null to mask. This exposes two methods of attack: an arbitrary mount gadget, leading to host information disclosure, host denial of service, container escape, or a bypassing of maskedPaths. This issue is fixed in versions 1.2.8, 1.3.3 and 1.4.0-rc.3.

An issue was discovered in Weaviate OSS before 1.33.4. An attacker with access to insert data into the database can craft an entry name with an absolute path (e.g., /etc/...) or use parent directory traversal (../../..) to escape the restore root when a backup is restored, potentially creating or overwriting files in arbitrary locations within the application's privilege scope.

LiteSpeed cPanel plugin before 2.4.8 (as distributed in LiteSpeed WHM PlugIn before 5.3.2.0) mishandles symlinks provided by a user with FTP or web shell access on a shared hosting server running CloudLinux/CageFS, as exploited in the wild in May 2026.

aiohttp is an asynchronous HTTP client/server framework for asyncio and Python. In versions on the 3.10 branch prior to version 3.10.2, static routes which contain files with compressed variants (`.gz` or `.br` extension) are vulnerable to path traversal outside the root directory if those variants are symbolic links. The server protects static routes from path traversal outside the root directory when `follow_symlinks=False` (default). It does this by resolving the requested URL to an absolute path and then checking that path relative to the root. However, these checks are not performed when looking for compressed variants in the `FileResponse` class, and symbolic links are then automatically followed when performing the `Path.stat()` and `Path.open()` to send the file. Version 3.10.2 contains a patch for the issue.

When running the AWS Serverless Application Model Command Line Interface (SAM CLI) build process with Docker and symlinks are included in the build files, the container environment allows a user to access privileged files on the host by leveraging the elevated permissions granted to the tool. A user could leverage the elevated permissions to access restricted files via symlinks and copy them to a more permissive location on the container. Users should upgrade to v1.133.0 or newer and ensure any forked or derivative code is patched to incorporate the new fixes.

A vulnerability was found in Pagure. Support of symbolic links during repository archiving of repositories allows the disclosure of local files. This flaw allows a malicious user to take advantage of the Pagure instance.

After completing a build with AWS Serverless Application Model Command Line Interface (SAM CLI) which include symlinks, the content of those symlinks are copied to the cache of the local workspace as regular files or directories. As a result, a user who does not have access to those symlinks outside of the Docker container would now have access via the local workspace. Users should upgrade to version 1.134.0 and ensure any forked or derivative code is patched to incorporate the new fixes. After upgrading, users must re-build their applications using the sam build --use-container to update the symlinks.

`@npmcli/arborist`, the library that calculates dependency trees and manages the `node_modules` folder hierarchy for the npm command line interface, aims to guarantee that package dependency contracts will be met, and the extraction of package contents will always be performed into the expected folder. This is, in part, accomplished by resolving dependency specifiers defined in `package.json` manifests for dependencies with a specific name, and nesting folders to resolve conflicting dependencies. When multiple dependencies differ only in the case of their name, Arborist's internal data structure saw them as separate items that could coexist within the same level in the `node_modules` hierarchy. However, on case-insensitive file systems (such as macOS and Windows), this is not the case. Combined with a symlink dependency such as `file:/some/path`, this allowed an attacker to create a situation in which arbitrary contents could be written to any location on the filesystem. For example, a package `pwn-a` could define a dependency in their `package.json` file such as `"foo": "file:/some/path"`. Another package, `pwn-b` could define a dependency such as `FOO: "file:foo.tgz"`. On case-insensitive file systems, if `pwn-a` was installed, and then `pwn-b` was installed afterwards, the contents of `foo.tgz` would be written to `/some/path`, and any existing contents of `/some/path` would be removed. Anyone using npm v7.20.6 or earlier on a case-insensitive filesystem is potentially affected. This is patched in @npmcli/arborist 2.8.2 which is included in npm v7.20.7 and above.

OpenClaw before 2026.3.31 contains a symlink following vulnerability in SSH sandbox tar upload that allows remote attackers to write arbitrary files. Attackers can exploit this by uploading tar archives containing symlinks to escape the sandbox and overwrite files on the remote host.

runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. In versions 1.2.7, 1.3.2 and 1.4.0-rc.2, an attacker can trick runc into misdirecting writes to /proc to other procfs files through the use of a racing container with shared mounts (we have also verified this attack is possible to exploit using a standard Dockerfile with docker buildx build as that also permits triggering parallel execution of containers with custom shared mounts configured). This redirect could be through symbolic links in a tmpfs or theoretically other methods such as regular bind-mounts. While similar, the mitigation applied for the related CVE, CVE-2019-19921, was fairly limited and effectively only caused runc to verify that when LSM labels are written they are actually procfs files. This issue is fixed in versions 1.2.8, 1.3.3, and 1.4.0-rc.3.

runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. Versions 1.0.0-rc3 through 1.2.7, 1.3.0-rc.1 through 1.3.2, and 1.4.0-rc.1 through 1.4.0-rc.2, due to insufficient checks when bind-mounting `/dev/pts/$n` to `/dev/console` inside the container, an attacker can trick runc into bind-mounting paths which would normally be made read-only or be masked onto a path that the attacker can write to. This attack is very similar in concept and application to CVE-2025-31133, except that it attacks a similar vulnerability in a different target (namely, the bind-mount of `/dev/pts/$n` to `/dev/console` as configured for all containers that allocate a console). This happens after `pivot_root(2)`, so this cannot be used to write to host files directly -- however, as with CVE-2025-31133, this can load to denial of service of the host or a container breakout by providing the attacker with a writable copy of `/proc/sysrq-trigger` or `/proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern` (respectively). This issue is fixed in versions 1.2.8, 1.3.3 and 1.4.0-rc.3.

Dell SupportAssist for Home PCs versions 4.6.1 and prior and Dell SupportAssist for Business PCs versions 4.5.0 and prior, contain a symbolic link (symlink) attack vulnerability in the software remediation component. A low-privileged authenticated user could potentially exploit this vulnerability, gaining privileges escalation, leading to arbitrary deletion of files and folders from the system.

Extract is aA Go library to extract archives in zip, tar.gz or tar.bz2 formats. A maliciously crafted archive may allow an attacker to create a symlink outside the extraction target directory. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.0.0. If you're using the Extractor.FS interface, then upgrading to /v4 will require to implement the new methods that have been added.

Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. Prior to version 2.1.64, Claude Code's sandbox did not prevent sandboxed processes from creating symlinks pointing to locations outside the workspace. When Claude Code subsequently wrote to a path within such a symlink, its unsandboxed process followed the symlink and wrote to the target location outside the workspace without prompting the user for confirmation. This allowed a sandbox escape where neither the sandboxed command nor the unsandboxed app could independently write outside the workspace, but their combination could write to arbitrary locations, potentially leading to code execution outside the sandbox. Reliably exploiting this required the ability to add untrusted content into a Claude Code context window to trigger sandboxed code execution via prompt injection. Users on standard Claude Code auto-update have received this fix automatically. Users performing manual updates are advised to update to version 2.1.64 or later.

Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) is an open standard for machine learning interoperability. Prior to version 1.21.0, a path traversal vulnerability via symlink allows to read arbitrary files outside model or user-provided directory. This issue has been patched in version 1.21.0.

tar-fs provides filesystem bindings for tar-stream. Versions prior to 3.1.1, 2.1.3, and 1.16.5 are vulnerable to symlink validation bypass if the destination directory is predictable with a specific tarball. This issue has been patched in version 3.1.1, 2.1.4, and 1.16.6. A workaround involves using the ignore option on non files/directories.

A UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in the packaging of syslog-ng of SUSE Linux Enterprise Debuginfo 11-SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Debuginfo 11-SP4, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Legacy Software 12, SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Sale 11-SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11-SP4-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP 12-SP1; openSUSE Backports SLE-15-SP1, openSUSE Leap 15.1 allowed local attackers controlling the user news to escalate their privileges to root. This issue affects: SUSE Linux Enterprise Debuginfo 11-SP3 syslog-ng versions prior to 2.0.9-27.34.40.5.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Debuginfo 11-SP4 syslog-ng versions prior to 2.0.9-27.34.40.5.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Legacy Software 12 syslog-ng versions prior to 3.6.4-12.8.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Sale 11-SP3 syslog-ng versions prior to 2.0.9-27.34.40.5.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11-SP4-LTSS syslog-ng versions prior to 2.0.9-27.34.40.5.1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP 12-SP1 syslog-ng versions prior to 3.6.4-12.8.1. openSUSE Backports SLE-15-SP1 syslog-ng versions prior to 3.19.1-bp151.4.6.1. openSUSE Leap 15.1 syslog-ng versions prior to 3.19.1-lp151.3.6.1.

`@npmcli/arborist`, the library that calculates dependency trees and manages the node_modules folder hierarchy for the npm command line interface, aims to guarantee that package dependency contracts will be met, and the extraction of package contents will always be performed into the expected folder. This is accomplished by extracting package contents into a project's `node_modules` folder. If the `node_modules` folder of the root project or any of its dependencies is somehow replaced with a symbolic link, it could allow Arborist to write package dependencies to any arbitrary location on the file system. Note that symbolic links contained within package artifact contents are filtered out, so another means of creating a `node_modules` symbolic link would have to be employed. 1. A `preinstall` script could replace `node_modules` with a symlink. (This is prevented by using `--ignore-scripts`.) 2. An attacker could supply the target with a git repository, instructing them to run `npm install --ignore-scripts` in the root. This may be successful, because `npm install --ignore-scripts` is typically not capable of making changes outside of the project directory, so it may be deemed safe. This is patched in @npmcli/arborist 2.8.2 which is included in npm v7.20.7 and above. For more information including workarounds please see the referenced GHSA-gmw6-94gg-2rc2.

A UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in the packaging of kopano-spamd of openSUSE Leap 15.1, openSUSE Tumbleweed allowed local attackers with the privileges of the kopano user to escalate to root. This issue affects: openSUSE Leap 15.1 kopano-spamd versions prior to 10.0.5-lp151.4.1. openSUSE Tumbleweed kopano-spamd versions prior to 10.0.5-1.1.

A chmod call in the cPanel Nova plugin's Cpanel::Nova::Connector follows symlinks, allowing setting root permissions on arbitrary system files or directories. That can cause DoS or local privilege escalation when an authenticated cPanel user places a symlink at a user-controlled legacy Nova path under their home directory.

Zed, a code editor, has an extension installer allows tar/gzip downloads. Prior to version 0.224.4, the tar extractor (`async_tar::Archive::unpack`) creates symlinks from the archive without validation, and the path guard (`writeable_path_from_extension`) only performs lexical prefix checks without resolving symlinks. An attacker can ship a tar that first creates a symlink inside the extension workdir pointing outside (e.g., `escape -> /`), then writes files through the symlink, causing writes to arbitrary host paths. This escapes the extension sandbox and enables code execution. Version 0.224.4 patches the issue.

Forgejo before 13.0.2 allows attackers to write to unintended files, and possibly obtain server shell access, because of mishandling of out-of-repository symlink destinations for template repositories. This is also fixed for 11 LTS in 11.0.7 and later.

A UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in openSUSE Tumbleweed cyrus-imapd allows escalation from cyrus to root.This issue affects openSUSE Tumbleweed cyrus-imapd before 3.8.4-2.1.

`zip` is a zip library for rust which supports reading and writing of simple ZIP files. In the archive extraction routine of affected versions of the `zip` crate starting with version 1.3.0 and prior to version 2.3.0, symbolic links earlier in the archive are allowed to be used for later files in the archive without validation of the final canonicalized path, allowing maliciously crafted archives to overwrite arbitrary files in the file system when extracted. Users who extract untrusted archive files using the following high-level API method may be affected and critical files on the system may be overwritten with arbitrary file permissions, which can potentially lead to code execution. Version 2.3.0 fixes the issue.

n8n is a workflow automation platform. Before 1.106.0, a symlink traversal vulnerability was discovered in the Read/Write File node in n8n. While the node attempts to restrict access to sensitive directories and files, it does not properly account for symbolic links (symlinks). An attacker with the ability to create symlinks—such as by using the Execute Command node—could exploit this to bypass the intended directory restrictions and read from or write to otherwise inaccessible paths. Users of n8n.cloud are not impacted. Affected users should update to version 1.106.0 or later.

Symlink following in the installer for some Zoom apps for macOS before version 6.1.5 may allow an authenticated user to conduct an escalation of privilege via network access.

pwn.college is an education platform to learn about, and practice, core cybersecurity concepts in a hands-on fashion. Incorrect symlink checks on user specified dojos allows for users (admin not required) to perform an LFI from the CTFd container. When a user clones or updates repositories, a check is performed to see if the repository had contained any symlinks. A malicious user could craft a repository with symlinks pointed to sensitive files and then retrieve them using the CTFd website.

A UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in arpwatch of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11-SP4-LTSS, SUSE Manager Server 4.0, SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9; openSUSE Factory, Leap 15.2 allows local attackers with control of the runtime user to run arpwatch as to escalate to root upon the next restart of arpwatch. This issue affects: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11-SP4-LTSS arpwatch versions prior to 2.1a15. SUSE Manager Server 4.0 arpwatch versions prior to 2.1a15. SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 arpwatch versions prior to 2.1a15. openSUSE Factory arpwatch version 2.1a15-169.5 and prior versions. openSUSE Leap 15.2 arpwatch version 2.1a15-lp152.5.5 and prior versions.

A UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in python-HyperKitty of openSUSE Leap 15.2, Factory allows local attackers to escalate privileges from the user hyperkitty or hyperkitty-admin to root. This issue affects: openSUSE Leap 15.2 python-HyperKitty version 1.3.2-lp152.2.3.1 and prior versions. openSUSE Factory python-HyperKitty versions prior to 1.3.4-5.1.

Backstage is an open framework for building developer portals, and @backstage/cli-common provides config loading functionality used by the backend and command line interface of Backstage. Prior to version 0.1.17, the `resolveSafeChildPath` utility function in `@backstage/backend-plugin-api`, which is used to prevent path traversal attacks, failed to properly validate symlink chains and dangling symlinks. An attacker could bypass the path validation via symlink chains (creating `link1 → link2 → /outside` where intermediate symlinks eventually resolve outside the allowed directory) and dangling symlinks (creating symlinks pointing to non-existent paths outside the base directory, which would later be created during file operations). This function is used by Scaffolder actions and other backend components to ensure file operations stay within designated directories. This vulnerability is fixed in `@backstage/backend-plugin-api` version 0.1.17. Users should upgrade to this version or later. Some workarounds are available. Run Backstage in a containerized environment with limited filesystem access and/or restrict template creation to trusted users.

Cargo incorrectly handled symlinks inside of crate tarballs downloaded from third-party registries, allowing a malicious crate to override the source code of another crate from the same registry. The severity of the vulnerability is **medium** for users of third-party registries. Users of crates.io are **not affected**, as crates.io forbids uploading crates containing any symlink.

The txtai framework allows the loading of compressed tar files as embedding indices. While the validate function is intended to prevent path traversal vulnerabilities by ensuring safe filenames, it does not account for symbolic links within the tar file. An attacker is able to write a file anywhere in the filesystem when txtai is used to load untrusted embedding indices

Vvveb before 1.0.8.3 contains an unrestricted file upload vulnerability in the plugin upload endpoint that allows super_admin users to execute arbitrary PHP code by uploading a malicious plugin ZIP file. Attackers can craft a ZIP containing a plugin.php with a valid Slug header and a public/index.php file with arbitrary PHP code, which executes as the web server user once accessed via subsequent unauthenticated HTTP requests to the plugin's public path.

LiquidJS is a Shopify / GitHub Pages compatible template engine in pure JavaScript. Prior to 10.25.3, for {% include %}, {% render %}, and {% layout %}, LiquidJS checks whether the candidate path is inside the configured partials or layouts roots before reading it. That check is path-based, not realpath-based. Because of that, a file like partials/link.liquid passes the directory containment check as long as its pathname is under the allowed root. If link.liquid is actually a symlink to a file outside the allowed root, the filesystem follows the symlink when the file is opened and LiquidJS renders the external target. So the restriction is applied to the path string that was requested, not to the file that is actually read. This matters in environments where an attacker can place templates or otherwise influence files under a trusted template root, including uploaded themes, extracted archives, mounted content, or repository-controlled template trees. This vulnerability is fixed in 10.25.3.

Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. Versions below 1.0.120 failed to account for symlinks when checking permission deny rules. If a user explicitly denied Claude Code access to a file and Claude Code had access to a symlink pointing to that file, it was possible for Claude Code to access the file. Users on standard Claude Code auto-update will have received this fix automatically. Users performing manual updates are advised to update to the latest version. This issue is fixed in version 1.0.120.

It was discovered that the process_report() function in data/whoopsie-upload-all allowed arbitrary file writes via symlinks.

tar-rs is a tar archive reading/writing library for Rust. In versions 0.4.44 and below, when unpacking a tar archive, the tar crate's unpack_dir function uses fs::metadata() to check whether a path that already exists is a directory. Because fs::metadata() follows symbolic links, a crafted tarball containing a symlink entry followed by a directory entry with the same name causes the crate to treat the symlink target as a valid existing directory — and subsequently apply chmod to it. This allows an attacker to modify the permissions of arbitrary directories outside the extraction root. This issue has been fixed in version 0.4.45.

Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. Prior to version 2.1.7, Claude Code failed to strictly enforce deny rules configured in settings.json when accessing files through symbolic links. If a user explicitly denied Claude Code access to a file (such as /etc/passwd) and Claude Code had access to a symbolic link pointing to that file, it was possible for Claude Code to read the restricted file through the symlink without triggering deny rule enforcement. This issue has been patched in version 2.1.7.

NVIDIA Container Toolkit and NVIDIA GPU Operator for Linux contain a UNIX vulnerability where a specially crafted container image can lead to the creation of unauthorized files on the host. The name and location of the files cannot be controlled by an attacker. A successful exploit of this vulnerability might lead to data tampering.

Airlink's Daemon interfaces with Docker and the Panel to provide secure access for controlling instances via the Panel. In version 1.0.0, an attacker with access to the affected container can create symbolic links inside the mounted directory (/app/data). Because the container bind-mounts an arbitrary host path, these symlinks can point to sensitive locations on the host filesystem. When the application or other processes follow these symlinks, the attacker can gain unauthorized read access to host files outside the container. This issue has been patched in version 1.0.1.

Private Tunnel installer for macOS version 3.0.1 and older versions may corrupt system critical files it should not have access via symlinks in /tmp.

Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. Incus provides an API to retrieve VM screenshots. That API relies on the use of a temporary file for QEMU to write the screenshot to which is then picked up and sent to the user prior to deletion. As versions prior to 6.23.0 use predictable paths under /tmp for this, an attacker with local access to the system can abuse this mechanism by creating their own symlinks ahead of time. On the vast majority of Linux systems, this will result in a "Permission denied" error when requesting a screenshot. That's because the Linux kernel has a security feature designed to block such attacks, `protected_symlinks`. On the rare systems with this purposefully disabled, it's then possible to trick Incus intro truncating and altering the mode and permissions of arbitrary files on the filesystem, leading to a potential denial of service or possible local privilege escalation. Version 6.23.0 fixes the issue.

Static Web Server (SWS) is a production-ready web server suitable for static web files or assets. Versions 2.40.0 and below contain symbolic links (symlinks) which can be used to access files or directories outside the intended web root folder. SWS generally does not prevent symlinks from escaping the web server’s root directory. Therefore, if a malicious actor gains access to the web server’s root directory, they could create symlinks to access other files outside the designated web root folder either by URL or via the directory listing. This issue is fixed in version 2.40.1.

Symbolic-link path traversal (CWE-61, CWE-22) in pgAdmin 4 File Manager. check_access_permission used os.path.abspath, which resolves '..' but does not resolve symbolic links, while the subsequent kernel write follows symlinks. An authenticated user could plant a symbolic link inside their own storage directory pointing outside it and induce pgAdmin to write to any path reachable by the pgAdmin process. Fix switches the access check to os.path.realpath for both source and destination, and adds an _open_upload_target helper that opens the target with O_NOFOLLOW (mode 0o600) to close the leaf-component TOCTOU between the access check and the open. File mode is hardened from 0o644 to 0o600. This issue affects pgAdmin 4: before 9.15.

zrok is software for sharing web services, files, and network resources. Prior to version 2.0.2, the zrok WebDAV drive backend (davServer.Dir) restricts path traversal through lexical normalization but does not prevent symlink following. When a symbolic link inside the shared DriveRoot points to a location outside that root, remote WebDAV consumers can read files and—on shares without OS-level permission restrictions—write or overwrite files anywhere on the host filesystem accessible to the zrok process. This issue has been patched in version 2.0.2.

Improper handling of symbolic links in Ivanti Connect Secure before version 22.7R2.8 or 22.8R2, Ivanti Policy Secure before 22.7R1.5, Ivanti ZTA Gateway before 22.8R2.3-723 and Ivanti Neurons for Secure Access before 22.8R1.4 (Fix deployed on 02-Aug-2025) allows a local authenticated attacker to read arbitrary files on disk.

Symlink following in PostgreSQL pg_basebackup plain format and in pg_rewind allows an origin superuser to overwrite local files, e.g. /var/lib/postgres/.bashrc, that hijack the operating system account. It will remain the case that starting the server after these commands implicitly trusts the origin superuser, due to features like shared_preload_libraries. Hence, the attack has practical implications only if one takes relevant action between these commands and server start, like moving the files to a different VM or snapshotting the VM. Versions before PostgreSQL 18.4, 17.10, 16.14, 15.18, and 14.23 are affected.

OpenClaw versions 2026.3.22 before 2026.4.5 contain a symlink traversal vulnerability in remote marketplace repository path handling that allows attackers to escape the expected repository root. Attackers can exploit this by providing crafted symlink paths to access files outside the intended repository directory.

OpenClaw through 2026.2.22 contains a symlink traversal vulnerability in agents.create and agents.update handlers that use fs.appendFile on IDENTITY.md without symlink containment checks. Attackers with workspace access can plant symlinks to append attacker-controlled content to arbitrary files, enabling remote code execution via crontab injection or unauthorized access via SSH key manipulation.

runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. runc 1.1.13 and earlier, as well as 1.2.0-rc2 and earlier, can be tricked into creating empty files or directories in arbitrary locations in the host filesystem by sharing a volume between two containers and exploiting a race with `os.MkdirAll`. While this could be used to create empty files, existing files would not be truncated. An attacker must have the ability to start containers using some kind of custom volume configuration. Containers using user namespaces are still affected, but the scope of places an attacker can create inodes can be significantly reduced. Sufficiently strict LSM policies (SELinux/Apparmor) can also in principle block this attack -- we suspect the industry standard SELinux policy may restrict this attack's scope but the exact scope of protection hasn't been analysed. This is exploitable using runc directly as well as through Docker and Kubernetes. The issue is fixed in runc v1.1.14 and v1.2.0-rc3. Some workarounds are available. Using user namespaces restricts this attack fairly significantly such that the attacker can only create inodes in directories that the remapped root user/group has write access to. Unless the root user is remapped to an actual user on the host (such as with rootless containers that don't use `/etc/sub[ug]id`), this in practice means that an attacker would only be able to create inodes in world-writable directories. A strict enough SELinux or AppArmor policy could in principle also restrict the scope if a specific label is applied to the runc runtime, though neither the extent to which the standard existing policies block this attack nor what exact policies are needed to sufficiently restrict this attack have been thoroughly tested.

It was discovered that read_file() in apport/hookutils.py would follow symbolic links or open FIFOs. When this function is used by the openjdk-17 package apport hooks, it could expose private data to other local users.

An arbitrary file deletion in ZSATrayManager where it protects the temporary encrypted ZApp issue reporting file from the unprivileged end user access and modification. Fixed version: Win ZApp 4.3.0 and later.

Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. From v3.4.0 to v3.28.0, an oversight in the CopyFile policy (and perhaps the CopyFile handler) allows untrusted hosts to write to arbitrary locations inside the guest workload image. This can be used to overwrite binaries inside the guest and exfiltrate data from containers; even those running inside CVMs. This vulnerability is fixed in v3.29.0.

It was discovered that read_file() in apport/hookutils.py would follow symbolic links or open FIFOs. When this function is used by the xorg-hwe-18.04 package apport hooks, it could expose private data to other local users.

It was discovered that read_file() in apport/hookutils.py would follow symbolic links or open FIFOs. When this function is used by the xorg package apport hooks, it could expose private data to other local users.

It was discovered that read_file() in apport/hookutils.py would follow symbolic links or open FIFOs. When this function is used by the openjdk-16 package apport hooks, it could expose private data to other local users.

It was discovered that read_file() in apport/hookutils.py would follow symbolic links or open FIFOs. When this function is used by the openjdk-15 package apport hooks, it could expose private data to other local users.

It was discovered that read_file() in apport/hookutils.py would follow symbolic links or open FIFOs. When this function is used by the openjdk-14 package apport hooks, it could expose private data to other local users.

It was discovered that read_file() in apport/hookutils.py would follow symbolic links or open FIFOs. When this function is used by the openjdk-13 package apport hooks, it could expose private data to other local users.

It was discovered that read_file() in apport/hookutils.py would follow symbolic links or open FIFOs. When this function is used by the openjdk-8 package apport hooks, it could expose private data to other local users.

It was discovered that read_file() in apport/hookutils.py would follow symbolic links or open FIFOs. When this function is used by the openjdk-lts package apport hooks, it could expose private data to other local users.

OpenVPN Connect installer for macOS version 3.2.6 and older may corrupt system critical files it should not have access via symlinks in /tmp.

UNIX symbolic link (Symlink) following issue exists in FutureNet NXR series, VXR series and WXR series routers. Attaching to the affected product an external storage containing malicious symbolic link files, a logged-in administrative user may obtain and/or destroy internal files.

When logs are written to a widely-writable directory (the default), an unprivileged attacker may predict a privileged process's log file path and pre-create a symbolic link to a sensitive file in its place. When that privileged process runs, it will follow the planted symlink and overwrite that sensitive file. To fix that, glog now causes the program to exit (with status code 2) when it finds that the configured log file already exists.

NVIDIA Resiliency Extension for Linux contains a vulnerability in log aggregation, where an attacker could cause predictable log-file names. A successful exploit of this vulnerability may lead to escalation of privileges, code execution, denial of service, information disclosure, and data tampering.