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ExploitedIn CISA KEVFix available

CVE-2020-28949

Exploitation confirmed. First attested on 2022-08-25 by CISA-ADP, CISA KEV, GCVE · kevintel.

  • Published2020-11-19
  • Fixed in1.4.11

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

Archive_Tar through 1.4.10 has :// filename sanitization only to address phar attacks, and thus any other stream-wrapper attack (such as file:// to overwrite files) can still succeed.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-11-1919:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2022-08-25Added to the CISA KEV catalogCISA KEV
  3. 2022-08-25Listed as exploited by GCVEGCVE
  4. 2022-08-25Exploitation first reportedCISA KEV
  5. 2025-02-0713:49SSVC exploitation set to activeCISA-ADP

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-03 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-28949?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-28949?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

OSV · NVD
pear/archive_tar
BranchAffectedFixed in
1.4< 1.4.111.4.11
Drupal
BranchAffectedFixed in
9.0≥ 9.0.0, < 9.0.99.0.9
8.x≥ 8.0.0, < 8.9.108.9.10
8.9≥ 8.9.0, < 8.9.108.9.10
8.8≥ 8.8.0, < 8.8.128.8.12
8.x≥ 8.0.0, < 8.8.128.8.12
7.x≥ 7.0, < 7.757.75
7.x≥ 7.0.0, < 7.75.07.75.0
Fedoraproject fedora
BranchAffectedFixed in
32.x= 32no fix published
33.x= 33no fix published
34.x= 34no fix published
35.x= 35no fix published

2 more products in the sources.

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • drupal7Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 7.44-1ubuntu1~16.04.0+esm2
  • drupal7Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 7.26-1ubuntu0.1+esm2
  • drupal7Debian:9all versions · fixed in 7.52-2+deb9u13
  • drupal7CleanStartall versions · fixed in 7.75-r0
  • drupal7Alpine:v3.20all versions · fixed in 7.75-r0
  • drupal7Alpine:v3.19all versions · fixed in 7.75-r0
  • drupal7Alpine:v3.18all versions · fixed in 7.75-r0
  • drupal7Alpine:v3.17all versions · fixed in 7.75-r0

55 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2020-28949 Red Hat Product Security606 products fixed · 7 known affected

    Archive_Tar: improper filename sanitization leads to file overwrites

    php-pear as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · php-pear.src as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · php-pear.src (php:7.2) as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 · +4 more

  • RHSA-2022:7340 Red Hat Product Security4 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: php-pear security update

  • RHSA-2022:6542 Red Hat Product Security301 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: php:7.4 security update

  • RHSA-2022:6541 Red Hat Product Security301 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: php:7.4 security update

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Update pear/archive_tar to 1.4.11
  2. CISA’s required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.due 2022-09-15
  3. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2022:7340 · 4 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258 After installing the updated packages, the httpd daemon must be restarted for the update to take effect.
  4. No fix planned, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2020-28949 · 2 productsOut of support scope
  5. No fix planned, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2020-28949 · 5 productsWill not fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
1 moduleexploit/multi/fileformat/archive_tar_arb_file_writerank: excellentModule metadata: Metasploit Framework, © Rapid7, Inc., BSD-3-Clause.
Metasploit Framework

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability

Date Added
2022-08-25
Patch Due Date
2022-09-15
Ransomware Use
Unknown
Required Action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2020-11-19
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Analyzed
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-75c5-f4gw-38r9 GHSA-jh5x-hfhg-78jq

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-28949?

Archive_Tar through 1.4.10 has :// filename sanitization only to address phar attacks, and thus any other stream-wrapper attack (such as file:// to overwrite files) can still succeed.

Is CVE-2020-28949 actively exploited?

Yes. CVE-2020-28949 is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, meaning it has been confirmed as actively exploited in the wild. CISA requires federal agencies to patch by 2022-09-15.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-28949?

CVE-2020-28949 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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Related vulnerabilities

Same product first, then the same vendor advisory and the same publication week.

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Sources for this record