High severity · published Jun 23, 2026
CVE-2026-11940
tarfile extraction filter bypass allows escaping the destination directory
7.8
CVSS
0.8%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
tarfile.extractall() with the 'data' or 'tar'
filter could be bypassed by a crafted archive where a hardlink
references a symlink stored at a deeper name than the hardlink itself.
The extraction fallback validated the symlink at it's archived location
but recreated it at the hardlink's shallower
path, letting a relative
target the filter judged contained escape the destination directory.
This allowed a malicious tar archive to create a symlink pointing
outside the destination, enabling out-of-destination file reads or
writes. This was an incomplete fix of CVE-2025-4330.
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.8% · higher than 55% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
CP
CPython · Python Software Foundation
before 3.10.21; 3.11.0 before 3.11.16; 3.12.0 before 3.12.14; 3.13.0 before 3.13.15; 3.14.0 before 3.14.7; 3.15.0a1 before 3.15.0b4 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-11940
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-11940
github.com
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/0f852b3f07dd8e71e40326a51c02afbf16a42cc5
github.com
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/27dd970bf6b17ebca7c8ed486a40ab043ed7af8f
github.com
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/672825e2f36a57e173959b0d9d409d4560dab8df
github.com
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/771d12dda5140313db0ac550292987975651bbde
github.com
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/79c06bd5c6afa3c440d50faf7ee1b147c8832b4c
github.com
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/be13e86f6b9788a6f4d0419dffef72cbae5865c9
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