Medium severity · published Jan 21, 2026
CVE-2026-23968
Copier safe template has arbitrary filesystem read access via symlinks when _preserve_symlinks: false
5.5
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Copier is a library and CLI app for rendering project templates. Prior to version 9.11.2, Copier suggests that it's safe to generate a project from a safe template, i.e. one that doesn't use unsafe features like custom Jinja extensions which would require passing the `--UNSAFE,--trust` flag. As it turns out, a safe template can currently include arbitrary files/directories outside the local template clone location by using symlinks along with `_preserve_symlinks: false` (which is Copier's default setting). Version 9.11.2 patches the issue.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 15% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
CO
copier · copier-org
< 9.11.2 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23968
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23968
Patch
https://github.com/copier-org/copier/commit/b3a7b3772d17cf0e7a4481978188c9f536c8d8f6
Exploit
https://github.com/copier-org/copier/security/advisories/GHSA-xjhm-gp88-8pfx
More from copier
8.8
CVE-2026-53951
Copier: trust-prefix bypass via path traversal runs tasks unprompted
8.5
CVE-2025-55201
Copier safe template has arbitrary filesystem read/write access
7.5
CVE-2026-62999
Copier: Percent-encoded dot segments in template URLs can allow trusted-prefix escape (Incomplete fix for trust-prefix bypass)
7.1
CVE-2026-23986
Copier safe template has arbitrary filesystem write access via directory symlinks when _preserve_symlinks: true
6.9
CVE-2025-55214
Copier safe template has filesystem write access outside destination path