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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2021-23177 json

An improper link resolution flaw while extracting an archive can lead to changing the access control...

published 2022-08-23 4 y ago modified 2026-07-18 3 mo ago also EUVD-2021-10287 , JLSEC-2025-235

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 33%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An improper link resolution flaw while extracting an archive can lead to changing the access control list (ACL) of the target of the link. An attacker may provide a malicious archive to a victim user, who would trigger this flaw when trying to extract the archive. A local attacker may use this flaw to change the ACL of a file on the system and gain more privileges.

Patch / fix

  • julia LibArchive_jll 3.5.2+0
  • libarchive libarchive 3.5.2
  • libarchive Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.5.2-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-23177

  • libarchive Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 3.4.0-2ubuntu1.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-23177

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • libarchive RHEL 8 3.3.3-3.el8_5
  • bsdtar RHEL 8 3.3.3-3.el8_5

red hat advisories RHSA-2022:0892

  • libarchive SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3, openSUSE Leap 15.3 3.4.2-150200.4.9.1
  • libarchive SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP4, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP4, openSUSE Leap 15.4 3.5.1-150400.3.6.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:3393-1SUSE-SU-2022:3306-1

  • bsdtar openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.7.2-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:13549-1

  • libarchive AlmaLinux 8 3.3.3-3.el8_5
  • bsdtar AlmaLinux 8 3.3.3-3.el8_5

almalinux advisories ALSA-2022:0892

  • libarchive Rocky Linux 8 3.3.3-3.el8_5

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2022:0892

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2021-23177 updated cvss 7.3

libarchive: extracting a symlink with ACLs modifies ACLs of target

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 libarchive Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 bsdtar, bsdcpio, libarchive
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) bsdtar 3.3.3-3.el8_5, libarchive 3.3.3-3.el8_5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) bsdtar 3.3.3-3.el8_5, libarchive 3.3.3-3.el8_5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:0892
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 bsdtar, libarchive
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 33% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
OSV 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
julia LibArchive_jll
<3.5.2+0
3.5.2+0

Affected products

  • n/a libarchive

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.