Packer vulnerable to arbitrary file write via crafted plugin archive during installation

published 2026-08-17 2 mo ago modified 2026-10-23 17 d ago also EUVD-2026-60378

cvss: 7.1; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.2%; EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 9%
public exploits: 0; none known

Packer up to 1.15.4 is vulnerable to an issue in the third-party plugin installer that may allow unintended file system modification and could lead to code execution. A user who installs a plugin from a malicious or compromised source may be affected. This vulnerability (CVE-2026-19589) is fixed in Packer 1.16.0.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 1

HashiCorp Packer 1.16.0

packer Azure Linux 3.0 1.9.5-20

azure linux advisories AZL-96603

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: partial
Assessed: 2 mo ago (2026-08-17)

Exploit prediction

0.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 9% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	7.1	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:N

Affected products

HashiCorp Packer

Classification

Weakness

CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory

References

discuss.hashicorp.com /t/hcsec-2026-29-packer-vulnerable-to-arbitrary-file-write-via-crafted-plugin-archive-during-installation/7765

Sources

CVE List CVE-2026-19589
NVD CVE-2026-19589

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.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.

Summary