CVE-2019-14866

Exp

In all versions of cpio before 2.13 does not properly validate input files when generating TAR archives. When cpio is used to create TAR archives from paths an attacker can write to, the resulting archive may contain files with permissions the attacker did not have or in paths he did not have access to. Extracting those archives from a high-privilege user without carefully reviewing them may lead to the compromise of the system.

Published: 2020-01-07 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2019-14866 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). Core evidence: 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2019-14866

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-14866

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-11-21 0.06% 0.03% -0.03%
2 2025-11-18 0.03% 0.06% +0.02%
3 2025-03-30 0.03%

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-14866

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.3 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.3 5.9 [email protected]
6.7 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
0.8 5.9 [email protected]
6.9 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
3.4 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-14866

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-14866

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2019-14866: 1 source package rows (cpio); 9 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 7, open 2. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2019-14866
debian low CVE-2019-14866 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (cpio), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-14866
gentoo normal CVE-2019-14866: 1 GLSA(s) (202407-07), 1 atom(s) (app-arch/cpio); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2019-14866
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-14866
suse medium CVE-2019-14866 severity moderate: SUSE including 368 source package names (0.1.0:cpio-2.12-3.3.1, 0.1.75:cpio-2.12-3.3.1, …), 492 product×package rows across 206 product lines (Container bci/bci-init, Container bci/dotnet-aspnet, … (206 product lines)): Fixed 335, Known Affected 157. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-14866/
ubuntu medium CVE-2019-14866 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (cpio), 6 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-14866

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-14866

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu cpio < 2.13 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:cpio:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-14866

cvelogic Threat Intelligence