No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2026-5223

Q: Is CVE-2026-5223 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2026-5223 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 0.3% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Q: What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-5223?

CVE-2026-5223 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.3 (MEDIUM severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.

Crates in third party registries can override the cached source of other crates

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

Published2026-05-25
Fixed in0.97.0
WeaknessCWE-61

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

Cargo incorrectly handled symlinks inside of crate tarballs downloaded from third-party registries, allowing a malicious crate to override the source code of another crate from the same registry. The severity of the vulnerability is **medium** for users of third-party registries. Users of crates.io are **not affected**, as crates.io forbids uploading crates containing any symlink.

Timeline

dates in UTC

2026-05-2510:16CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 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-2026-5223?format=txt
CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2026-5223?format=csv
TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

OSV · NVD

cargo

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
0.97	< 0.97.0	0.97.0	OSV

Rust-lang cargo

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
1.96	< 1.96.0	1.96.0	NVD

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.

Vendor advisories

CVE-2026-5223 Red Hat Product Security4 products fixed · 19 known affected
cargo: Cargo: Source code overwrite due to symlink mishandling in third-party registries
cargo as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 · clippy as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 · goose.src as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 · +16 more
RHSA-2026:42923 Red Hat Product Security39 products fixed
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update

Full record on NVD

Fix

Update cargo to 0.97.0
Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2026:42923 · 39 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://images.redhat.com/
Workaround from the vendor Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2026:42923 · 39 productsTo mitigate this issue, avoid using untrusted third-party Cargo registries. If third-party registries are necessary, ensure they enforce strict policies against symlinks in crate tarballs and verify the integrity of downloaded crates. No direct configuration or operational workaround is available w…
No fix available, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2026-5223 · 19 productsFix deferred

Advisories and patches

blog.rust-lang.orgMitigation · Vendor Advisory
github.comPatch

Detection

Nuclei template: none so far
Exploit-DB: no entry
Proof-of-concept repositories: none listed

Sources

CISA-ADPSSVC decisionnone2026-05-26
OpenCVESSVC decisionnone—
CNACVSS 4.06.5read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 3.15.3read 2026-10-23
CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-61read 2026-10-23
FIRST EPSSEPSS score0.3 %2026-10-23
OSVaffected packages—
Microsoft MSRCadvisory—

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
CVSS 4.0 vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Published: 2026-05-25
Last Modified: 2026-07-23
NVD status: Analyzed
MSRC Title: Crates in third party registries can override the cached source of other crates

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-5223?

Is CVE-2026-5223 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2026-5223 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 0.3% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-5223?

CVE-2026-5223 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.3 (MEDIUM severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.

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