Path Traversal in Pacman Project

CVE-2019-9686

pacman before 5.1.3 allows directory traversal when installing a remote package via a specified URL "pacman -U <url>" due to an unsanitized file name received from a Content-Disposition header. pacman renames the downloaded package file to match the name given in this header. However, pacman did not sanitize this name, which may contain slashes, before calling rename(). A malicious server (or a network MitM if downloading over HTTP) can send a Content-Disposition header to make pacman place the file anywhere in the filesystem, potentially leading to arbitrary root code execution. Notably, this bypasses pacman's package signature checking. This occurs in curl_download_internal in lib/libalpm/dload.c.

Vulnerability class: Path Traversal (Directory Traversal)

EPSS: 0.034 (87.6th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

  • cve@mitre.org (Patch, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_MISC)
  • cve@mitre.org (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_MISC)
  • cve@mitre.org (Patch, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_MISC)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2019-9686?
CVE-2019-9686 is a high-severity vulnerability in Pacman Project, classified under Path Traversal. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2019-03-11.
How severe is CVE-2019-9686?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.