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CVE-2021-38511

24
FAUCET Score

CVE-2021-38511 describes a directory traversal vulnerability in the Rust tar crate prior to version 0.4.36. This flaw allows an attacker to create arbitrary directories outside the intended extraction path when processing a specially crafted TAR archive containing symlinks. With a CVSS score of 7.5 (High), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable with low attack complexity, potentially leading to high integrity impact without requiring user interaction. Currently, there is no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage surrounding this CVE.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
< 0.4.36CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:tar_project:tar:*:*:*:*:*:rust:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

7.5HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
NONE
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
3.6
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
1.39%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
69.5%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0139 is in the 50th percentile among its peer group of 51,506 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (1)

rustpatch availablevia ghsa
Product: tarFixed in: 0.4.36

Vendor Advisories (2)

rustGHSA-62jx-8vmh-4mcwhigh

Links in archive can create arbitrary directories

Aug 25, 2021
redhatCVE-2021-38511Moderate

tar-crate: links in archive can create arbitrary directories

Sep 10, 2020

References

raw.githubusercontent.com / rustsec/advisory-db/main/crates/tar/RUSTSEC-2021-0080.md
ExploitThird Party Advisory
rustsec.org / advisories/RUSTSEC-2021-0080.html
ExploitThird Party Advisory