Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-24843 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Chainguard Melange. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); 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-2026-24843 is a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) in melange, a tool for building APK packages using declarative pipelines. The flaw affects versions 0.11.3 through 0.40.2, stemming from the retrieveWorkspace function, which extracts tar entries from a QEMU guest VM without validating that paths remain within the intended workspace directory. This allows attackers to use ../ sequences in tar streams to escape the workspace boundaries.
An attacker who can influence the tar stream from a QEMU guest VM can exploit this vulnerability to write arbitrary files outside the workspace directory on the host system. Per the CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.2 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H), exploitation requires local access with low complexity, no privileges, and user interaction, but achieves high integrity and availability impacts due to the changed scope from writing files on the host.
The issue was patched in melange version 0.40.3. The Chainguard security advisory (GHSA-qxx2-7h4c-83f4) and patch commit (6e243d0d46699f837d7c392397a694d2bcc7612b) provide further details on the fix, which addresses the lack of path validation during tar extraction.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-5373
Vulnerability Data
melange allows users to build apk packages using declarative pipelines. In version 0.11.3 to before 0.40.3, an attacker who can influence the tar stream from a QEMU guest VM could write files outside the intended workspace directory on the host.…
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The retrieveWorkspace function extracts tar entries without validating that paths stay within the workspace, allowing path traversal via ../ sequences. This issue has been patched in version 0.40.3.
- 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.