CVE-2026-70622
Description
A flaw was found in tar-rs. This vulnerability, a symlink escape, allows a local attacker to read sensitive files outside of the intended directory. By planting specially crafted symbolic links in an untrusted directory, an attacker can trick a privileged process, when archiving that directory, into including arbitrary files from the system. This leads to the disclosure of potentially confidential information to the attacker.
Statement
This flaw has a Moderate impact. tar-rs (the Rust tar crate) from 0.4.11 through 0.4.46 follows symlinks in Builder::append_dir_all() when creating an archive, so a privileged process that archives an attacker-controlled directory can be tricked into including files from outside the source root, disclosing them to the attacker. Exploitation requires a privileged process to invoke the archive-creation (write) path - append_dir_all/append_dir/append_path with symlink-following enabled - over an untrusted, attacker-writable directory; the extraction/read path, archivers that operate only on trusted or process-generated content, and callers that set follow_symlinks(false) are not affected. Across Red Hat's offerings only OpenShift Update Service (Cincinnati) exercises this pattern - it archives directories extracted from externally-sourced graph-data tarballs and pulled image layers - and is marked affected. All other Red Hat products that bundle the Rust tar crate were reviewed via deep-check and found not affected: they use the crate only at build time, only on the extraction/read path, only over trusted/process-generated content, or with symlink following disabled.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
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).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 6.5 | N/A | 6.5 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | Low | N/A | Low |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | None | N/A | None |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
The attacker may be able to create or overwrite critical files that are used to execute code, such as programs or libraries.
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Files or Directories
The attacker may be able to overwrite or create critical files, such as programs, libraries, or important data. If the targeted file is used for a security mechanism, then the attacker may be able to bypass that mechanism. For example, appending a new account at the end of a password file may allow an attacker to bypass authentication.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Files or Directories
The attacker may be able read the contents of unexpected files and expose sensitive data. If the targeted file is used for a security mechanism, then the attacker may be able to bypass that mechanism. For example, by reading a password file, the attacker could conduct brute force password guessing attacks in order to break into an account on the system.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
The attacker may be able to overwrite, delete, or corrupt unexpected critical files such as programs, libraries, or important data. This may prevent the product from working at all and in the case of protection mechanisms such as authentication, it has the potential to lock out product users.
Frequently Asked Questions
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