CVE-2023-7216 | Cpio: extraction allows symlinks which enables remote command execution

Exp

A path traversal vulnerability was found in the CPIO utility. This issue could allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to trick a user into opening a specially crafted archive. During the extraction process, the archiver could follow symlinks outside of the intended directory, which allows files to be written in arbitrary directories through symlinks.

Published: 2024-02-05 Last update: 2026-02-25 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-7216 is rated Exploit Available (56/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.90%). 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-2023-7216

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-7216

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 0.28% 0.90% +0.62%
2 2026-02-23 0.18% 0.28% +0.10%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.18% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-7216

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L 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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.8 3.4 [email protected]
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L 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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.8 3.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-7216

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-7216

vendor priority summary link
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-7216
suse high CVE-2023-7216 severity important: SUSE including 3 source package names (cpio, cpio-lang, cpio-mt), 87 product×package rows across 38 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1, … (38 product lines)): Known Not Affected 57, Will Not Fix 30. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-7216/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-7216 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (cpio), 11 status rows across 11 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): deferred 7, ignored 3, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-7216

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-7216

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu cpio — 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:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-7216

URL Tags
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-7216 Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2249901 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence