CVE-2026-90954

Busybox: busybox: dpkg-deb extraction-root escape via per-ar-member deferred symlink flush

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: October 14, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC
Updated: October 19, 2026 at 08:21 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorHardened Images

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A flaw was found in BusyBox's dpkg-deb archive extraction. The ar archive handler flushes deferred symlinks after each archive member, unlike the tar, cpio, and unzip handlers which flush once after the last member. A specially crafted .deb archive with two data.tar members can exploit this ordering: the first member declares a symlink pointing to an absolute path (e.g., '/'), which is deferred as unsafe but flushed after the first member. The second member declares a regular file whose path traverses the now-live symlink, resulting in a file being written outside the intended extraction directory. This could allow an attacker to write arbitrary files to arbitrary locations when a user extracts a crafted .deb package.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

All versions

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

References (2)

VDB Entryx_refsource_REDHAT
Source: cverecord
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-90954
Issue Trackingx_refsource_REDHAT
Source: cverecord
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2533007

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHredhat
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusAWAITING ANALYSIS
CWE
CWE-59

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