🛡️ CVE-2026-42497 on Debian — perl

⚪ Unknown ✅ No Known Exploit OSV
N/A
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Archive::Tar versions before 3.08 for Perl extract hardlinks to attacker controlled paths outside the extraction directory. _make_special_file() passes the tar header's linkname to link() without validating it against absolute paths or .. segments, creating a hardlink that shares the victim file's inode. A subsequent write through the extracted name modifies the victim file, and the post-extraction chmod, chown, and utime block in _extract_file() (guarded only against symlinks via -l) applies the tar header's mode, owner, and timestamps to the shared inode during extraction alone.

Distribution advisory

This page covers CVE-2026-42497 as tracked by Debian, for the package perl. No fixed version has been recorded for this distribution yet.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity high, availability none.

Weakness class

DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42497 is classified as CWE-59: Link Following. The software follows symbolic or hard links without verifying their target, so a planted link can redirect an operation to a sensitive file.

Affected software

DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42497 is recorded against 1 package.

  • perl

Timeline and source

Published on 26 May 2026 and last revised on 4 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.

References

security-tracker.debian.org (Advisory)

CVE-2026-42497 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity Unknown
CVSS Score N/A
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source OSV
Published 2026-05-26
Updated 2026-08-11
Modified 2026-08-04
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
perl — —

Similar Threats

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