CVE Database›Document archive›CVE-2019-8320

CVE-2019-8320

rubygems: Delete directory using symlink when decompressing tar

Loading…

Severity

Moderate

Red Hat Product Security

7.4

CVSS 3.0

Review impact separately from score.

Published · March 5, 2019

Updated · November 2, 2026

Description

A Directory Traversal issue was discovered in RubyGems 2.7.6 and later through 3.0.2. Before making new directories or touching files (which now include path-checking code for symlinks), it would delete the target destination. If that destination was hidden behind a symlink, a malicious gem could delete arbitrary files on the user's machine, presuming the attacker could guess at paths. Given how frequently gem is run as sudo, and how predictable paths are on modern systems (/tmp, /usr, etc.), this could likely lead to data loss or an unusable system.

CVSS score applicability

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation

No mitigation is specified in collected source.

CVSS / CWE

CVSS 3.0 · 7.4
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory