A vulnerability was found in GNU Nano that allows a possible privilege escalation through an insecure temporary file. If Nano is killed while editing, a file it saves to an emergency file with the permissions of the running user provides a window of opportunity for attackers to escalate privileges through a malicious symlink.

A flaw was found in RPC request using gfs3_symlink_req in glusterfs server which allows symlink destinations to point to file paths outside of the gluster volume. An authenticated attacker could use this flaw to create arbitrary symlinks pointing anywhere on the server and execute arbitrary code on glusterfs server nodes.

acl before version 2.4.0 contains a symlink traversal vulnerability in the libacl pathname-based functions acl_get_file(), acl_set_file(), acl_extended_file(), and acl_delete_def_file() that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by replacing any pathname component with a symbolic link. Attackers who control any component of a pathname processed by a privileged caller can redirect ACL read or write operations to arbitrary files or directories, enabling unauthorized manipulation of access control lists and local privilege escalation.

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-exportserver component. An attacker with specific namespace-level access can exploit a path traversal vulnerability in the VMExport directory endpoint. By placing a symbolic link (symlink) within an exported filesystem Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) that points outside its designated mount root, the attacker can read arbitrary files from the exporter pod's filesystem. This leads to information disclosure, potentially exposing sensitive data.

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.

attr before version 2.6.0 contains a symlink traversal vulnerability in the getfattr and setfattr utilities that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by replacing a pathname component with a symbolic link during directory hierarchy traversal. Attackers who control a pathname component can redirect getfattr and setfattr operations to arbitrary files by substituting a symlink, leading to local privilege escalation when getfattr or setfattr is invoked by a privileged process over an attacker-controlled path.

Privilege escalation flaws were found in the Red Hat initialization scripts of PostgreSQL. An attacker with access to the postgres user account could use these flaws to obtain root access on the server machine.

A symlink following vulnerability was found in the ABRT post-create event handler scripts in libreport. Event scripts write output files using shell redirections without the O_NOFOLLOW flag. If the target file is replaced with a symlink, the shell process running as root follows the symlink and writes content to the symlink target, allowing arbitrary file overwrites on the system.

A flaw was found in Go. When FIPS mode is enabled on a system, container runtimes may incorrectly handle certain file paths due to improper validation in the containers/common Go library. This flaw allows an attacker to exploit symbolic links and trick the system into mounting sensitive host directories inside a container. This issue also allows attackers to access critical host files, bypassing the intended isolation between containers and the host system.

Archive::Tar versions before 3.08 for Perl extract symlinks with attacker controlled targets outside the extraction directory. _make_special_file() passes the tar header's linkname to symlink() without validating it against absolute paths or .. segments. The secure-extract mode check that guards regular file extraction does not cover the symlink target. A subsequent open through the extracted name reads or writes the attacker chosen path.

Flatpak is a Linux application sandboxing and distribution framework. Prior to 1.16.4, the Flatpak portal accepts paths in the sandbox-expose options which can be app-controlled symlinks pointing at arbitrary paths. Flatpak run mounts the resolved host path in the sandbox. This gives apps access to all host files and can be used as a primitive to gain code execution in the host context. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.16.4.

vm2 is an open source vm/sandbox for Node.js. In 3.10.5, NodeVM's require.root path restriction can be bypassed using filesystem symlinks, allowing sandboxed code to load modules from outside the allowed root directory in host context. Because path validation uses path.resolve() (which does not dereference symlinks) but module loading uses Node's native require() (which does), an attacker can load arbitrary host-realm modules and achieve remote code execution. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.11.0.

Jenkins 2.554 and earlier, LTS 2.541.2 and earlier does not safely handle symbolic links during the extraction of .tar and .tar.gz archives, allowing crafted archives to write files to arbitrary locations on the filesystem, restricted only by file system access permissions of the user running Jenkins. This can be exploited to deploy malicious scripts or plugins on the controller by attackers with Item/Configure permission, or able to control agent processes.

A flaw was found in Buildah (and subsequently Podman Build) which allows containers to mount arbitrary locations on the host filesystem into build containers. A malicious Containerfile can use a dummy image with a symbolic link to the root filesystem as a mount source and cause the mount operation to mount the host root filesystem inside the RUN step. The commands inside the RUN step will then have read-write access to the host filesystem, allowing for full container escape at build time.

node-tar is a full-featured Tar for Node.js. Prior to version 7.5.10, tar can be tricked into creating a hardlink that points outside the extraction directory by using a drive-relative link target such as C:../target.txt, which enables file overwrite outside cwd during normal tar.x() extraction. This issue has been patched in version 7.5.10.

node-tar,a Tar for Node.js, contains a vulnerability in versions prior to 7.5.7 where the security check for hardlink entries uses different path resolution semantics than the actual hardlink creation logic. This mismatch allows an attacker to craft a malicious TAR archive that bypasses path traversal protections and creates hardlinks to arbitrary files outside the extraction directory. Version 7.5.7 contains a fix for the issue.

Backstage is an open framework for building developer portals. Multiple Scaffolder actions and archive extraction utilities were vulnerable to symlink-based path traversal attacks. An attacker with access to create and execute Scaffolder templates could exploit symlinks to read arbitrary files via the `debug:log` action by creating a symlink pointing to sensitive files (e.g., `/etc/passwd`, configuration files, secrets); delete arbitrary files via the `fs:delete` action by creating symlinks pointing outside the workspace, and write files outside the workspace via archive extraction (tar/zip) containing malicious symlinks. This affects any Backstage deployment where users can create or execute Scaffolder templates. This vulnerability is fixed in `@backstage/backend-defaults` versions 0.12.2, 0.13.2, 0.14.1, and 0.15.0; `@backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend` versions 2.2.2, 3.0.2, and 3.1.1; and `@backstage/plugin-scaffolder-node` versions 0.11.2 and 0.12.3. Users should upgrade to these versions or later. Some workarounds are available. Follow the recommendation in the Backstage Threat Model to limit access to creating and updating templates, restrict who can create and execute Scaffolder templates using the permissions framework, audit existing templates for symlink usage, and/or run Backstage in a containerized environment with limited filesystem access.

A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found in the ansible.posix authorized_key module. The module's keyfile() function uses os.chown() instead of os.lchown() and opens files without O_NOFOLLOW when managing SSH authorized keys. An unprivileged local user can pre-stage symbolic links in their ~/.ssh directory to redirect file ownership changes to arbitrary system paths when an operator runs the authorized_key task as root, leading to local privilege escalation.

A flaw was found in PackStack. A local user could exploit a symlink attack on a temporary file with a predictable name in the `/tmp` directory. This vulnerability allows the local user to overwrite arbitrary files on the system, potentially leading to system compromise or data corruption.

A vulnerability was found in Performance Co-Pilot (PCP). This flaw can only be exploited if an attacker has access to a compromised PCP system account. The issue is related to the pmpost tool, which is used to log messages in the system. Under certain conditions, it runs with high-level privileges.

A path traversal vulnerability was found in the CPIO utility. This issue could allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to trick a user into opening a specially crafted archive. During the extraction process, the archiver could follow symlinks outside of the intended directory, which allows files to be written in arbitrary directories through symlinks.

DUP framework version 4.9.4.36 and prior contains insecure operation on Windows junction/Mount point vulnerability. A local malicious standard user could exploit the vulnerability to create arbitrary files, leading to denial of service

Dell Command | Update, Dell Update, and Alienware Update versions 4.9.0, A01 and prior contain an Insecure Operation on Windows Junction / Mount Point vulnerability. A local malicious user could potentially exploit this vulnerability to create arbitrary folder leading to permanent Denial of Service (DOS).

An NTFS Junction condition exists in the Qualys Cloud Agent for Windows platform in versions before 4.8.0.31. Attackers may write files to arbitrary locations via a local attack vector. This allows attackers to assume the privileges of the process, and they may delete or otherwise on unauthorized files, allowing for the potential modification or deletion of sensitive files limited only to that specific directory/file object. This vulnerability is bounded to the time of installation/uninstallation and can only be exploited locally. At the time of this disclosure, versions before 4.0 are classified as End of Life.

Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Dell/Alienware Purchased Apps, versions prior to 1.1.32.0, contain an Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following') vulnerability. A low privileged attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to Arbitrary File Write

Docker Desktop for Windows before 4.6 allows attackers to overwrite any file through the windowscontainers/start dockerBackendV2 API by controlling the data-root field inside the DaemonJSON field in the WindowsContainerStartRequest class. This allows exploiting a symlink vulnerability in ..\dataRoot\network\files\local-kv.db because of a TOCTOU race condition.

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the Windows User Profile Service (ProfSvc) improperly handles symlinks. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could delete files and folders in an elevated context. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerability and delete files or folders of their choosing. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how the Windows User Profile Service handles symlinks.

Dell/Alienware Purchased Apps, versions prior to 1.1.31.0, contain an Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following') vulnerability. A low privileged attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to Arbitrary File Write

filelock is a platform-independent file lock for Python. In versions prior to 3.20.1, a Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition allows local attackers to corrupt or truncate arbitrary user files through symlink attacks. The vulnerability exists in both Unix and Windows lock file creation where filelock checks if a file exists before opening it with O_TRUNC. An attacker can create a symlink pointing to a victim file in the time gap between the check and open, causing os.open() to follow the symlink and truncate the target file. All users of filelock on Unix, Linux, macOS, and Windows systems are impacted. The vulnerability cascades to dependent libraries. The attack requires local filesystem access and ability to create symlinks (standard user permissions on Unix; Developer Mode on Windows 10+). Exploitation succeeds within 1-3 attempts when lock file paths are predictable. The issue is fixed in version 3.20.1. If immediate upgrade is not possible, use SoftFileLock instead of UnixFileLock/WindowsFileLock (note: different locking semantics, may not be suitable for all use cases); ensure lock file directories have restrictive permissions (chmod 0700) to prevent untrusted users from creating symlinks; and/or monitor lock file directories for suspicious symlinks before running trusted applications. These workarounds provide only partial mitigation. The race condition remains exploitable. Upgrading to version 3.20.1 is strongly recommended.

Privilege Escalation vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection (MTP) before 16.0.R26 allows local users to delete files the user would otherwise not have access to via manipulating symbolic links to redirect a McAfee delete action to an unintended file. This is achieved through running a malicious script or program on the target machine.