CWE-61UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following

Abstraction: Compound · CVEs in our corpus: 187

The product, when opening a file or directory, does not sufficiently account for when the file is a symbolic link that resolves to a target outside of the intended control sphere. This could allow an attacker to cause the product to operate on unauthorized files.

A product that allows UNIX symbolic links (symlink) as part of paths whether in internal code or through user input can allow an attacker to spoof the symbolic link and traverse the file system to unintended locations or access arbitrary files. The symbolic link can permit an attacker to read/write/corrupt a file that they originally did not have permissions to access.

Last updated: 15 October 2026 20:36 UTC

Cumulative inbound coverage

How completely the frameworks we cross-walk collectively cover this — the verdict is the strongest single mapping (overlapping partials are not summed); breadth shows the corroboration behind it.

Collective: mostly · 1 mapping(s) from 1 framework(s): STIG oracle linux 8 1 (mostly)

See the full cumulative-coverage rollup →

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

This weakness contributes to A01:2025 Broken Access Control.

Control responseHuman-reviewed

Answering this weakness across the control lifecycle, from our framework cross-walks.

Prevent

Stop it (NIST 800-53 / CSF Protect)

PR.PS-06
AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement
AC-6 Least Privilege
PR.AA-05

Detect

Catch it (CSF Detect / Respond)

—

Harden

Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

2 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines

Validate

Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

V5.2.5

NIST 800-53 r5 controls PROPOSED for this weakness (0)AI-assisted

These are model PROPOSALS, not graded mappings. They come from controls_to_cwe_proposals, which carries no grade field at all; across the CWE pages 1,540 of 1,722 such associations (89%) have never been graded by anything. The heading said “address” until 2026-09-29, which asserted a relationship the data does not carry. Graded cross-walks are on the framework map, not here.

Control	Title	Family	Why it addresses this CWE
No NIST controls proposed yet.

Top CVEs of this weakness type, ranked by Risk Priority

CVE	Risk	CVSS	EPSS	Published
`CVE-2026-54420` KEV	8.7	8.5	0.0081	2026-06-14
`CVE-2024-28185`	8.1	10.0	0.0706	2024-04-18
`CVE-2024-28189`	8.1	10.0	0.0721	2024-04-18
`CVE-2024-54148`	7.5	9.8	0.0086	2024-12-23
`CVE-2026-34078`	7.5	10.0	0.0090	2026-04-07
`CVE-2026-39861`	7.5	10.0	0.0080	2026-04-21
`CVE-2026-91099`	7.5	9.8	0.0098	2026-09-16
`CVE-2024-54661`	7.4	9.8	0.0080	2024-12-04
`CVE-2025-23394`	7.4	9.8	0.0057	2025-05-26
`CVE-2025-62161`	7.2	10.0	0.0026	2025-11-06
`CVE-2025-62596`	7.2	10.0	0.0027	2025-11-06
`CVE-2026-63125`	7.0	9.9	0.0066	2026-08-21
`CVE-2026-55447`	6.8	9.6	0.0066	2026-06-23
`CVE-2024-22014`	6.7	8.8	0.0076	2024-04-15
`CVE-2025-55345`	6.7	8.8	0.0084	2025-08-13
`CVE-2026-27976`	6.7	8.8	0.0073	2026-02-26
`CVE-2026-56748`	6.7	8.8	0.0092	2026-07-27
`CVE-2026-29203`	6.6	8.8	0.0052	2026-05-08
`CVE-2023-37460`	6.5	8.1	0.0248	2023-07-25
`CVE-2026-6475`	6.5	8.8	0.0032	2026-05-14
`CVE-2021-32518`	6.2	7.5	0.0167	2021-07-07
`CVE-2024-47515`	6.2	8.1	0.0055	2024-12-24
`CVE-2025-67487`	6.2	8.6	0.0042	2025-12-09
`CVE-2025-33225`	6.2	8.4	0.0030	2025-12-16
`CVE-2026-39860`	6.2	9.0	0.0018	2026-04-08