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)
Published · last modified .
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.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.034 (88.4th percentile), scored .
Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 88th percentile — 88.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.034 · newest: 0.034 · change: -0.000
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/ (Patch, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
- git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/ (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
- git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/ (Patch, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
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.