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Fencer Vulns
medium 4.8

CVE-2019-11251 json

kubectl cp allows symlink directory traversal

published 2020-02-03 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-6qfg-8799-r575 , GO-2022-0802 , EUVD-2021-0974

cvss
4.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.6%
EPSS 2.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 85%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The Kubernetes kubectl cp command in versions 1.1-1.12, and versions prior to 1.13.11, 1.14.7, and 1.15.4 allows a combination of two symlinks provided by tar output of a malicious container to place a file outside of the destination directory specified in the kubectl cp invocation. This could be used to allow an attacker to place a nefarious file using a symlink, outside of the destination tree.

Patch / fix

  • go k8s.io/kubernetes 1.13.11, 1.14.7, 1.16.0
  • kubernetes kubernetes 1.13.11, 1.14.7, 1.15.4
  • atomic-openshift openshift 3.11 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7
  • atomic-openshift-pod openshift 3.11 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7
  • atomic-openshift-node openshift 3.11 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7
  • atomic-openshift-tests openshift 3.11 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7
  • atomic-openshift-master openshift 3.11 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7
  • atomic-openshift-clients openshift 3.11 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7
  • atomic-openshift-sdn-ovs openshift 3.11 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7
  • atomic-openshift-excluder openshift 3.11 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:3905RHSA-2019:3811RHSA-2019:3266

  • govulncheck-vulndb openSUSE Tumbleweed 0.0.20250807T150727-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2025:15424-1

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-2019-11251 updated cvss 5.3

kubernetes: `kubectl cp` allows for arbitrary file write via double symlinks

  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.10 atomic-openshift, atomic-openshift-pod, atomic-openshift-node, atomic-openshift-tests, atomic-openshift-master, atomic-openshift-clients, +7 more
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 atomic-openshift 3.9.102-1.git.0.6411f52.el7, atomic-openshift-pod 3.9.102-1.git.0.6411f52.el7, atomic-openshift-node 3.9.102-1.git.0.6411f52.el7, atomic-openshift-tests 3.9.102-1.git.0.6411f52.el7, atomic-openshift-master 3.9.102-1.git.0.6411f52.el7, atomic-openshift-clients 3.9.102-1.git.0.6411f52.el7, +8 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:3811
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.11 atomic-openshift 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7, atomic-openshift-pod 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7, atomic-openshift-node 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7, atomic-openshift-tests 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7, atomic-openshift-master 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7, atomic-openshift-clients 3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7, +7 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:3905
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.1 openshift4/ose-cli v4.1.21-201910230924, openshift 4.1.21-201910220952.git.0.493dbf6.el7, openshift 4.1.21-201910220952.git.0.493dbf6.el8, openshift-clients 4.1.21-201910220952.git.0.493dbf6.el7, openshift-clients 4.1.21-201910220952.git.0.493dbf6.el8, openshift-hyperkube 4.1.21-201910220952.git.0.493dbf6.el7, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:3266
  • Red Hat Storage 3 heketi, heketi-client, python-heketi
    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

2.62% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 85% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 4.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
NVD 3.1 5.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
GitHub 3.1 5.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
go k8s.io/kubernetes
>=1.13.10, <1.13.11
>=1.14.6, <1.14.7
>=1.15.3, <1.16.0
1.13.11
1.14.7
1.16.0

Affected products

  • Kubernetes Kubernetes

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-61 UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following
  • CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Technology feeds

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.