CVE-2026-11940
tarfile extraction filter bypass allows escaping the destination directory
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Description
tarfile.extractall() with the 'data' or 'tar' filter could be bypassed by a crafted archive where a hardlink references a symlink stored at a deeper name than the hardlink itself. The extraction fallback validated the symlink at it's archived location but recreated it at the hardlink's shallower path, letting a relative target the filter judged contained escape the destination directory. This allowed a malicious tar archive to create a symlink pointing outside the destination, enabling out-of-destination file reads or writes. This was an incomplete fix of CVE-2025-4330.
Affected
Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.
Remediation
No guide yetNo remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:
Patch and advisory references
- https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/151559
- https://mail.python.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/LD6QIISNQFQYOIEPJNEUIPV7S3V76FZH/
- https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/27dd970bf6b17ebca7c8ed486a40ab043ed7af8f
- https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/672825e2f36a57e173959b0d9d409d4560dab8df
- https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/771d12dda5140313db0ac550292987975651bbde
References (10)
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