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malcontent vulnerable to symlink Path Traversal via handleSymlink argument confusion in archive extraction

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jan 29, 2026 in chainguard-dev/malcontent • Updated Jan 31, 2026

Package

gomod github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent (Go)

Affected versions

>= 1.8.0, < 1.20.3

Patched versions

1.20.3

Description

malcontent could be made to create symlinks outside the intended extraction directory when scanning a specially crafted tar or deb archive. The handleSymlink function received arguments in the wrong order, causing the symlink target to be used as the symlink location. Additionally, symlink targets were not validated to ensure they resolved within the extraction directory.

Fixes:

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Oleh Konko from 1seal for discovering and reporting this issue.

References

@eslerm eslerm published to chainguard-dev/malcontent Jan 29, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jan 29, 2026
Reviewed Jan 29, 2026
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jan 29, 2026
Last updated Jan 31, 2026

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(0th percentile)

Weaknesses

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Learn more on MITRE.

Function Call With Incorrect Order of Arguments

The product calls a function, procedure, or routine, but the caller specifies the arguments in an incorrect order, leading to resultant weaknesses. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-24846

GHSA ID

GHSA-923j-vrcg-hxwh

Source code

Credits

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