CVE-2019-8320

Exp

A Directory Traversal issue was discovered in RubyGems 2.7.6 and later through 3.0.2. Before making new directories or touching files (which now include path-checking code for symlinks), it would delete the target destination. If that destination was hidden behind a symlink, a malicious gem could delete arbitrary files on the user's machine, presuming the attacker could guess at paths. Given how frequently gem is run as sudo, and how predictable paths are on modern systems (/tmp, /usr, etc.), this could likely lead to data loss or an unusable system.

Published: 2019-06-06 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-8320 is rated High Exploit Risk (76.4/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 6.22%, 91th percentile). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2019-8320

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-8320

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 2026-06-04 6.31% 6.22% -0.08%
2 2026-03-22 6.42% 6.31% -0.11%
3 2026-03-04 — 6.42% —

Full EPSS history (50 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-8320

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.4 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful 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.
 2.2 5.2 [email protected]
8.8 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 8.6 9.2 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-8320

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2019-8320

GHSA-5x32-c9mf-49cc · Severity: high · Ecosystem: rubygems — RubyGems Delete directory using symlink when decompressing tar

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-8320

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2019-8320 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (jruby, rubygems), 9 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 9. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-8320
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-8320
suse medium CVE-2019-8320 severity moderate: SUSE including 317 source package names (2.17-17.3:libruby2_5-2_5-2.5.5-4.3.1, 2.17-17.3:ruby2.5-2.5.5-4.3.1, …), 1018 product×package rows across 246 product lines (Container bci/ruby, Container suse/rmt-server, … (246 product lines)): Fixed 859, Known Affected 157, Known Not Affected 2. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-8320/
ubuntu medium CVE-2019-8320 medium priority: Ubuntu including 6 source packages (jruby, ruby1.9.1, ruby2.0, ruby2.1, ruby2.3, ruby2.5), 112 status rows across 19 suites (bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 83, not-affected 13, released 7, needs-triage 6, ignored 2, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-8320

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-8320

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
rubygems rubygems >= 2.7.6, <= 3.0.2 cpe:2.3:a:rubygems:rubygems:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-8320

cvelogic Threat Intelligence