CVE-2024-12088
Path Traversal in Redhat Enterprise Linux 10.0 … 9.0
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:NSummary
CVE-2024-12088 is a medium-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2024-12088 is a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) in the rsync client. When the --safe-links option is used, the client fails to properly verify if a symbolic link destination sent from the server contains another symbolic link within it. This flaw may lead to arbitrary file writes outside the desired directory. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N) and was published on 2025-01-14.
A remote attacker with no privileges can exploit this vulnerability by controlling an rsync server and sending specially crafted symbolic links to a client using the --safe-links option during a file transfer. Exploitation requires user interaction, such as initiating the rsync client command to pull files from the malicious server. Successful attacks allow the attacker to achieve high-impact integrity violations by writing files to arbitrary locations on the client's filesystem.
Red Hat has issued multiple advisories addressing this issue, including RHBA-2025:6470, RHSA-2025:2600, RHSA-2025:7050, and RHSA-2025:8385. Further details on the vulnerability and mitigations are available at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-12088.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-50584
Vulnerability Data
A flaw was found in rsync. When using the `--safe-links` option, the rsync client fails to properly verify if a symbolic link destination sent from the server contains another symbolic link within it. This results in a path traversal vulnerability,…
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which may lead to arbitrary file write outside the desired directory.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.3.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.
Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.
Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.
Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.
Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.
Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.
Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.