CVE-2026-26158Busybox: busybox: arbitrary file modification and privilege escalation via unvalidated tar archive entries
- 7.0HighCVSS base score
- 0.19%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 91% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
A flaw was found in BusyBox. This vulnerability allows an attacker to modify files outside of the intended extraction directory by crafting a malicious tar archive containing unvalidated hardlink or symlink entries. If the tar archive is extracted with elevated privileges, this flaw can lead to privilege escalation, enabling an attacker to gain unauthorized access to critical system files.
Timeline
ID reserved
By redhat
Published
- 9 months later
· 9 months 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 | High7.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| redhat-SADPADP (enrichment) | 3.1 | High7.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | High7.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.19% · top 91% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.0.
Affected products
Red Hat · Red Hat Hardened Images
- unaffected 1.37.0-7.2.hum1 – < *
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
All versions: unknown
What to do
Workaround: As a prevention measure, avoid extracting tar archives from untrusted sources using BusyBox, especially when operating with elevated privileges. If processing untrusted archives is unavoidable, ensure that the extraction process is performed within a strictly sandboxed environment with minimal permissions. This operational control reduces the risk of arbitrary file modification and privilege escalation.
References
References6
- RHSA-2026:13831 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-26158 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2439040 (opens in a new tab)issue-trackingx_refsource_REDHAT
- https://git.busybox.net/busybox/commit/archival?id=3fb6b31c716669e12f75a2accd31bb7685b1a1cb (opens in a new tab)
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-253495.html (opens in a new tab)
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-26158.json (opens in a new tab)x_sadp-csaf-vex
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-2026-7020 (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-2026-26158)Record last updated .