CVE-2020-28949

Exp

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.

Published: 2020-11-19 Last update: 2025-11-07 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-28949 is rated Critical Active Threat (91.5/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 93.36%, 100th percentile). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2022-08-25) affecting PEAR / Archive_Tar. Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

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

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2020-28949

Name: PEAR Archive_Tar Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2022-08-25

Action due: 2022-09-15

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2020-28949

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-2020-28949

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 2026-04-19 92.96% 93.36% +0.40%
2 2025-12-28 92.61% 92.96% +0.35%
3 2025-12-27 — 92.61% —

Full EPSS history (44 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-28949

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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.
 1.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P 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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.6 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-28949

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-28949

GHSA-75c5-f4gw-38r9 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: composer — Multiple vulnerabilities through filename manipulation in Archive_Tar

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-28949

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2020-28949: 1 source package rows (drupal7); 5 state rows across 5 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, edge-community); fixed 5, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-28949
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-28949 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (php-pear), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-28949
gentoo normal CVE-2020-28949: 1 GLSA(s) (202101-23), 1 atom(s) (dev-php/PEAR-Archive_Tar); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-28949
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-28949
ubuntu high CVE-2020-28949 high priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (drupal7, php-pear), 28 status rows across 14 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 15, DNE 12, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-28949

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-28949

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
php archive_tar < 1.4.12 cpe:2.3:a:php:archive_tar:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 34 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 35 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:35:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
drupal drupal >= 7.0, < 7.75 cpe:2.3:a:drupal:drupal:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
drupal drupal >= 8.0.0, < 8.9.10 cpe:2.3:a:drupal:drupal:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
drupal drupal >= 8.8.0, < 8.8.12 cpe:2.3:a:drupal:drupal:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
drupal drupal >= 9.0.0, < 9.0.9 cpe:2.3:a:drupal:drupal:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-28949

URL Tags
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/161095/PEAR-Archive_Tar-Arbitrary-File-Write.html Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://github.com/pear/Archive_Tar/issues/33 Exploit Issue Tracking Vendor Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/11/msg00045.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/42GPGVVFTLJYAKRI75IVB5R45NYQGEUR/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/4V35LBRM6HBCXBVCITKQ4UEBTXO2EG7B/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/5KSFM672XW3X6BR7TVKRD63SLZGKK437/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/KWM4CTMEGAC4I2CHYNJVSROY4CVXVEUT/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/NBYZSHYTIOBK6V7C4N7TP6KIKCRKLVWP/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/VJQQYDAOWHD6RDITDRPHFW7WY6BS3V5N/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202101-23 Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4817 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://www.drupal.org/sa-core-2020-013 Third Party Advisory
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-28949 US Government Resource
cvelogic Threat Intelligence