CVE-2023-7216Cpio: extraction allows symlinks which enables remote command execution
- 5.3MediumCVSS base score
- 0.90%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 40% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
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.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Timeline
ID reserved
By redhat
- 31 days later
· 31 days later
Published
- 3 years later
· 3 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhatCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium5.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium5.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.90% · top 40% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.3.
Affected products
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
All versions: unknown
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
All versions: affected
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
All versions: affected
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
All versions: affected
What to do
Workaround: Use the --no-absolute-filenames option to avoid this behaviour.
References
References2
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-7216 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_REDHATx_transferred
- RHBZ#2249901 (opens in a new tab)issue-trackingx_refsource_REDHATx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2023-59397 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2023-7216)Record last updated .