High severity · published Aug 25, 2026
CVE-2026-79655
Sos: sos: path traversal in sos clean tar extraction via unvalidated symlink/hardlink targets leads to arbitrary file write
7.8
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
A flaw was found in sos clean, a utility within the sos package. This vulnerability allows a local attacker to perform arbitrary file creation or overwrite. By crafting a malicious tar archive, an attacker can exploit a path traversal issue during tar extraction, where symlink and hardlink targets are not properly validated. This enables the attacker to write files to arbitrary locations on the system with the privileges of the sos clean process, which often runs as root.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 12% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
RH
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: vendor
RH
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: vendor
RH
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: vendor
RH
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-79655
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-79655
vdb-entry
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-79655
issue-tracking
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2523363
github.com
https://github.com/sosreport/sos/issues/4460
github.com
https://github.com/sosreport/sos/pull/4461
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