CVE-2026-50558Penelope unsafe tar extraction allows arbitrary local file write via crafted session archive
- 5.9MediumCVSS base score
- 0.37%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 69% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
Penelope Shell Handler is a post-exploitation shell handler for authorized security testing. Prior to 0.20.0, the Unix download() implementation in penelope.py used tar.extractall(local_download_folder) on tar archives returned by remote sessions without validating member paths, allowing a malicious or compromised session to write files outside the intended download directory and potentially overwrite ~/.penelope/peneloperc. This issue is fixed in version 0.20.0.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits1
References tagged exploit1 reference
- https://github.com/brightio/penelope/security/advisories/GHSA-f42x-p2mx-hm8r (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 55 days later
· 55 days later
Published
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium5.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | Medium5.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.37% · top 69% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.9.
Affected products
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- PyPIpenelope-shell-handlerGHSA-f42x-p2mx-hm8r (opens in a new tab)
References
References3
- https://github.com/brightio/penelope/security/advisories/GHSA-f42x-p2mx-hm8r (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
- https://github.com/brightio/penelope/commit/a040afb5db32c7e80b5e8a2f9b2164cf911cfa62 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/brightio/penelope/releases/tag/v0.20.0 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
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-2026-50395 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-f42x-p2mx-hm8r (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-2026-50558)Record last updated .