CVE-2026-42497
Published: 26 May 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-42497 is a high-severity Link Following (CWE-59) vulnerability in Archive\ \. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Linux and Mac Permissions (T1222.002); ranked at the 32.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-31777
Vulnerability details
Archive::Tar versions before 3.08 for Perl extract hardlinks to attacker controlled paths outside the extraction directory. _make_special_file() passes the tar header's linkname to link() without validating it against absolute paths or .. segments, creating a hardlink that shares the victim…
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file's inode. A subsequent write through the extracted name modifies the victim file, and the post-extraction chmod, chown, and utime block in _extract_file() (guarded only against symlinks via -l) applies the tar header's mode, owner, and timestamps to the shared inode during extraction alone.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Hardlink extraction without path validation enables arbitrary inode modification (content overwrite via write, plus chmod/chown/utime) outside the extraction root.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Procedures support proper permission assignment for critical resources through documented controls.
Attribute management for resources provides a mechanism to assign and maintain correct permissions based on security labels.
Prevents overly permissive assignments to critical resources by limiting to task needs.
Training policy covers correct permission assignment, reducing the ability to exploit incorrect permission assignments for critical resources.
Training on permission management reduces incorrect permission assignments for critical resources.
Audit logs and logging tools are critical resources whose protection requires correct permission assignments to block unauthorized actions.
Assessments review permission assignments on critical resources to confirm correctness, mitigating exploitation via incorrect permissions.
Certification includes checking that permissions on critical resources are correctly assigned.