medium 6.5

CVE-2026-33056 json

tar-rs: unpack_in can chmod arbitrary directories by following symlinks

published 2026-03-19 7 mo ago modified 2026-09-10 1 mo ago also EUVD-2026-13616 , GHSA-j4xf-2g29-59ph , RUSTSEC-2026-0067

cvss: 6.5; 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

tar-rs is a tar archive reading/writing library for Rust. In versions 0.4.44 and below, when unpacking a tar archive, the tar crate's unpack_dir function uses fs::metadata() to check whether a path that already exists is a directory. Because fs::metadata() follows symbolic links, a crafted tarball containing a symlink entry followed by a directory entry with the same name causes the crate to treat the symlink target as a valid existing directory — and subsequently apply chmod to it. This allows an attacker to modify the permissions of arbitrary directories outside the extraction root. This issue has been fixed in version 0.4.45.

Patch / fix

fixed in 3 distros 4 links 1

crates.io tar 0.4.45
alexcrichton tar-rs 0.4.45
tar_project tar 0.4.45

debian ubuntu alpine azure linux

rustc Debian 13 1.85.1+dfsg1-1+deb13u1
rustc Debian 14 1.92.0+dfsg1-2
rust-tar Debian 14 0.4.45-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-33056

rustc Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 1.75.0+dfsg0ubuntu1~bpo0-0ubuntu0.22.04.1
rustc Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 1.75.0+dfsg0ubuntu1-0ubuntu7.4
rust-tar Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 0.4.37-3ubuntu0.1
rust-tar Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 0.4.40-1ubuntu0.1
rust-tar Ubuntu 25.10 0.4.43-4ubuntu0.1
rustc-1.62 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 1.62.1+dfsg1-1ubuntu0.22.04.3
rustc-1.74 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 1.74.1+dfsg0ubuntu1-0ubuntu15
rustc-1.76 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 1.76.0+dfsg0ubuntu1~bpo0-0ubuntu0.22.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-33056

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

rust Alpine 3.20 1.78.0-r1
rust Alpine 3.21 1.83.0-r1
rust Alpine 3.22 1.87.0-r1
rust Alpine 3.23 1.91.1-r1
rust Alpine 3.24 1.94.0-r1
chromium-rust Alpine 3.24 1.94.0-r1

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2026-33056

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

rpm-ostree Azure Linux 3.0 2024.4-10
rust Azure Linux 3.0 1.75.0-28
rust Azure Linux 3.0 1.90.0-7
trident Azure Linux 3.0 0.22.0-1
clamav Azure Linux 3.0 1.5.2-2

azure linux advisories AZL-80499 AZL-80502 AZL-80511 AZL-80523 AZL-83037

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

github.com/alexcrichton/tar-rs@17b1fd8 commit

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-2026-33056 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 4.4

tar-rs: tar-rs: Arbitrary directory permission modification via crafted tar archive

Red Hat Confidential Compute Attestation openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-monitor-rhel9, openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-rhel9-operator, openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-operator-bundle, openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-podvm-builder-rhel9, openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-podvm-payload-rhel9 Red Hat Lightspeed Core lightspeed-core/dataverse-exporter-rhel9 Red Hat Logging Subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift openshift-logging/vector-rhel9, openshift-logging/fluentd-rhel9, openshift-logging/eventrouter-rhel9, openshift-logging/logging-view-plugin-rhel9, openshift-logging/cluster-logging-rhel9-operator, openshift-logging/log-file-metric-exporter-rhel9, +1 more Red Hat OpenShift Lightspeed openshift-lightspeed/lightspeed-to-dataverse-exporter-rhel9 Red Hat Pen Drive Powered by Red Hat Lightspeed pen-drive/pen-drive-scanner-rhel9 Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 ansible-automation-platform-26/hub-rhel9, ansible-automation-platform-26/gateway-rhel9, ansible-automation-platform-26/mcp-tools-rhel9, ansible-automation-platform-24/lightspeed-rhel8, ansible-automation-platform-25/lightspeed-rhel8, ansible-automation-platform-26/controller-rhel9, +9 more

+15 more productsfewer

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Ansible Core 2 ansible-automation-platform/ee-minimal-rhel8, ansible-automation-platform-tech-preview/ee-minimal-rhel8, ansible-automation-platform-tech-preview/ee-minimal-rhel9 Red Hat Discovery 2 discovery/discovery-server-rhel9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 tar Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 tar Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 rls, tar, rust, cargo, clippy, rustfmt, +11 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 tar, rust, bootc, cargo, clippy, rustfmt, +26 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 tar, mesa, rust, bootc, libkrun, trustee, +4 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3 rust Red Hat Offline Knowledge Portal offline-knowledge-portal/rhokp-rhel9 Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) rhoai/odh-llm-d-inference-scheduler-rhel9, rhoai/odh-ml-pipelines-runtime-generic-rhel9, rhoai/odh-model-registry-job-async-upload-rhel9, rhoai/odh-trustyai-garak-lls-provider-dsp-rhel9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 rpm-ostree, kata-containers, rpm-ostree-libs, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Update Service openshift-update-service/openshift-update-service-rhel8 Red Hat Quay 3 quay/quay-rhel8, quay/quay-rhel9 Red Hat Satellite 6 python-maturin, python3.12-maturin, satellite/iop-vmaas-rhel9, satellite/iop-advisor-engine-rhel9, satellite/iop-host-inventory-rhel9, satellite/iop-advisor-backend-rhel9, +1 more Red Hat Trusted Profile Analyzer rhtpa/rhtpa-trustification-service-rhel9

affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”

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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: partial
Assessed: 7 mo ago (2026-03-20)

Exploit prediction

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

Exploits and checks

github.com https://github.com/alexcrichton/tar-rs/security/advisories/GHSA-j4xf-2g29-59ph referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	4.0	5.1	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
GitHub	3.1	6.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
CNA	4.0	5.1	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
NVD	3.1	6.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem	package	affected	fixed in
crates.io	tar	<0.4.45 >=0.0.0-0, <0.4.45	0.4.45

Affected products

alexcrichton tar-rs

Classification

Weakness

CWE-61 UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following

References

github.com /alexcrichton/tar-rs/commit/17b1fd84e632071cb8eef9d3709bf347bd266446
web, patch
github.com /alexcrichton/tar-rs/security/advisories/GHSA-j4xf-2g29-59ph
web, exploit, mitigation, vendor-advisory
nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2026-33056
advisory
github.com /alexcrichton/tar-rs
package
rustsec.org /advisories/RUSTSEC-2026-0067.html
web, advisory
crates.io /crates/tar
package

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.

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

Summary