CVE-2026-44604
Description
A command injection vulnerability was discovered in the rpmuncompress utility of RPM. When extracting certain archive formats (ZIP, 7z, GEM) to a specified destination directory, the tool inserts the archive's top-level folder name into a shell command without properly sanitizing it. A specially crafted archive containing shell metacharacters in its folder name can execute arbitrary commands as the user running the extraction.
Statement
This flaw affects RPM source-preparation workflows in build environments; standard tar extraction is not affected. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System (RHIVOS) ship rpm based on the 4.x codebase, which does not include the doUntar()/singleRoot() construction introduced in the rpm 6.0 rewrite that is required to trigger this issue. These products are therefore not affected.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7 | N/A | 7 |
| Attack Vector | Local | N/A | Local |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | Required | N/A | Required |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Integrity,Availability,Non-Repudiation
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; Read Files or Directories; Modify Files or Directories; Read Application Data; Modify Application Data; Hide Activities
Attackers could execute unauthorized operating system commands, which could then be used to disable the product, or read and modify data for which the attacker does not have permissions to access directly. Since the targeted application is directly executing the commands instead of the attacker, any malicious activities may appear to come from the application or the application's owner.
Acknowledgements
This issue was discovered by Found by AISLE in partnership with Red Hat.
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