Path Traversal in Python Software Foundation Cpython

CVE-2024-12718

Allows modifying some file metadata (e.g. last modified) with filter="data" or file permissions (chmod) with filter="tar" of files outside the extraction directory. You are affected by this vulnerability if using the tarfile module to extract untrusted tar archives using TarFile.extractall() or TarFile.extract() using the filter= parameter with a value of "data" or "tar". See the tarfile extraction filters documentation https://docs.python.org/3/library/tarfile.html#tarfile-extraction-filter  for more information. Only Python versions 3.12 or later are affected by these vulnerabilities, earlier versions don't include the extraction filter feature. Note that for Python 3.14 or later the default value of filter= changed from "no filtering" to `"data", so if you are relying on this new default behavior then your usage is also affected. Note that none of these vulnerabilities significantly affect the installation of source distributions which are tar archives as source distributions already allow arbitrary code execution during the build process. However when evaluating source distributions it's important to avoid installing source distributions with suspicious links.

Vulnerability class: Path Traversal (Directory Traversal)

EPSS: 0.006 (46.9th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.3 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2024-12718?
CVE-2024-12718 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Python Software Foundation Cpython, classified under Path Traversal. CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2025-06-03.
How severe is CVE-2024-12718?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.
Is CVE-2024-12718 known to be exploited?
3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.