Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:LSummary
CVE-2026-28406 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Chainguard Kaniko. 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 46th 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-2026-28406 is a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) affecting kaniko, a tool for building container images from a Dockerfile within a container or Kubernetes cluster. The issue impacts versions starting from 1.25.4 up to but not including 1.25.10. Kaniko unpacks build context archives using `filepath.Join(dest, cleanedName)` without ensuring the resolved path remains within the intended destination directory, allowing malicious tar entries like `../outside.txt` to escape the extraction root and write files outside it. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.2 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L).
Attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely with no privileges or user interaction required by supplying a malicious tar archive as the build context. This enables arbitrary file writes outside the extraction directory. In environments configured with registry authentication, the vulnerability can be chained with Docker credential helpers to achieve code execution within the kaniko executor process.
The fix in version 1.25.10 replaces the insecure path joining with securejoin for tar extraction path resolution. Relevant advisories and patches are detailed in the GitHub security advisory (GHSA-6rxq-q92g-4rmf), pull request #326, and commit a370e4b1f66e6e842b685c8f70ed507964c4b221 from the chainguard-forks/kaniko repository. Security practitioners should upgrade to 1.25.10 or later and validate build contexts from untrusted sources.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-9077
Vulnerability Data
kaniko is a tool to build container images from a Dockerfile, inside a container or Kubernetes cluster. Starting in version 1.25.4 and prior to version 1.25.10, kaniko unpacks build context archives using `filepath.Join(dest, cleanedName)` without enforcing that the final path…
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stays within `dest`. A tar entry like `../outside.txt` escapes the extraction root and writes files outside the destination directory. In environments with registry authentication, this can be chained with docker credential helpers to achieve code execution within the executor process. Version 1.25.10 uses securejoin for path resolution in tar extraction.
- 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.