What is CVE-2018-20990?

CVE-2018-20990 is a high-severity vulnerability in Tar Project, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2019-08-26.

How severe is CVE-2018-20990?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Tar Project

CVE-2018-20990

An issue was discovered in the tar crate before 0.4.16 for Rust. Arbitrary file overwrite can occur via a symlink or hardlink in a TAR archive.

Published 2019-08-26 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.017 (75.9th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 76th percentile — 75.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.017 · newest: 0.017 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Tar Project

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-59 — Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

References

rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2018-0002.html (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-20990?: CVE-2018-20990 is a high-severity vulnerability in Tar Project, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2019-08-26.
How severe is CVE-2018-20990?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.