CVE-2021-39208 | WriteEntryToDirectory used for an archive extraction is vulnerable to partial path traversal.

Exp

SharpCompress is a fully managed C# library to deal with many compression types and formats. Versions prior to 0.29.0 are vulnerable to partial path traversal. SharpCompress recreates a hierarchy of directories under destinationDirectory if ExtractFullPath is set to true in options. In order to prevent extraction outside the destination directory the destinationFileName path is verified to begin with fullDestinationDirectoryPath. However, prior to version 0.29.0, it is not enforced that fullDestinationDirectoryPath ends with slash. If the destinationDirectory is not slash terminated like `/home/user/dir` it is possible to create a file with a name thats begins as the destination directory one level up from the directory, i.e. `/home/user/dir.sh`. Because of the file name and destination directory constraints the arbitrary file creation impact is limited and depends on the use case. This issue is fixed in SharpCompress version 0.29.0.

Published: 2021-09-16 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-39208 is rated Exploit Available (54.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.15%). Core evidence: 1 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-2021-39208

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-39208

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 2026-06-15 0.36% 1.15% +0.79%
2 2025-03-30 0.32% 0.36% +0.04%
3 2025-03-29 0.32%

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-39208

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 1.4 [email protected]
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/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:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-39208

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-39208

GHSA-jp7f-grcv-6mjf · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: nuget — Partial path traversal in sharpcompress

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-39208

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
sharpcompress_project sharpcompress < 0.29.0 cpe:2.3:a:sharpcompress_project:sharpcompress:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-39208

cvelogic Threat Intelligence