CVE-2021-38511

Exp

An issue was discovered in the tar crate before 0.4.36 for Rust. When symlinks are present in a TAR archive, extraction can create arbitrary directories via .. traversal.

Published: 2021-08-10 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-38511 is rated High Exploit Risk (64.6/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.34%). 2 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-2021-38511

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-2021-38511

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 0.38% 0.34% -0.04%
2 2025-11-18 0.34% 0.38% +0.04%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.34% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-38511

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N 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: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: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:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-38511

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-38511

GHSA-62jx-8vmh-4mcw · Severity: high · Ecosystem: rust — Links in archive can create arbitrary directories

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-38511

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-38511 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (rust-tar), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-38511
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-38511
suse medium CVE-2021-38511 severity moderate: SUSE including 10 source package names (cargo, cargo1.60, …), 16 product×package rows across 2 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP4): Known Not Affected 16. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-38511/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-38511 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (rust-tar), 15 status rows across 15 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 8, needs-triage 5, DNE 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-38511

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-38511

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
tar_project tar < 0.4.36 cpe:2.3:a:tar_project:tar:*:*:*:*:*:rust:*:*

References for CVE-2021-38511

cvelogic Threat Intelligence