tar-rs is a tar archive reading/writing library for Rust. In versions 0.4.44 and below, when unpacking a tar archive, the tar crate's unpack_dir function uses fs::metadata() to check whether a path that already exists is a directory. Because fs::metadata() follows symbolic links, a crafted tarball containing a symlink entry followed by a directory entry with the same name causes the crate to treat the symlink target as a valid existing directory — and subsequently apply chmod to it. This allows an attacker to modify the permissions of arbitrary directories outside the extraction root. This issue has been fixed in version 0.4.45.
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History

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Alexcrichton
Alexcrichton tar-rs
Vendors & Products Alexcrichton
Alexcrichton tar-rs

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 07:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description tar-rs is a tar archive reading/writing library for Rust. In versions 0.4.44 and below, when unpacking a tar archive, the tar crate's unpack_dir function uses fs::metadata() to check whether a path that already exists is a directory. Because fs::metadata() follows symbolic links, a crafted tarball containing a symlink entry followed by a directory entry with the same name causes the crate to treat the symlink target as a valid existing directory — and subsequently apply chmod to it. This allows an attacker to modify the permissions of arbitrary directories outside the extraction root. This issue has been fixed in version 0.4.45.
Title tar-rs: unpack_in can chmod arbitrary directories by following symlinks
Weaknesses CWE-61
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 5.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}


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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-03-20T07:11:10.448Z

Reserved: 2026-03-17T18:10:50.213Z

Link: CVE-2026-33056

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-03-20T08:16:11.603

Modified: 2026-03-20T08:16:11.603

Link: CVE-2026-33056

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-03-20T10:36:54Z

Weaknesses