CVE-2025-8088 | Path traversal vulnerability in WinRAR

Exp

A path traversal vulnerability affecting the Windows version of WinRAR allows the attackers to execute arbitrary code by crafting malicious archive files. This vulnerability was exploited in the wild and was discovered by Anton Cherepanov, Peter Košinár, and Peter Strýček from ESET.

Published: 2025-08-08 Last update: 2025-10-30 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-8088 is rated Critical Active Threat (92.8/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 11.61%, 94th percentile). Core evidence: CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2025-08-12) affecting RARLAB / WinRAR. a weakness (CWE-35) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. EPSS rose +1.40% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: 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-2025-8088

Name: RARLAB WinRAR Path Traversal Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2025-08-12

Action due: 2025-09-02

Required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-8088

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 2026-06-09 10.20% 11.61% +1.40%
2 2026-06-08 11.61% 10.20% -1.40%
3 2026-06-06 11.61%

Full EPSS history (82 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-8088

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.4 4.0 HIGH
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
Attacker needs local access on the target system.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:A)
User interaction is required in an active way.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:H)
High confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:H)
High integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:H)
High availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:X)
Not defined: no reliable threat intelligence; scoring assumes the worst case (equivalent to Attacked).
Confidentiality requirement (CR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Integrity requirement (IR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Availability requirement (AR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Modified attack vector (MAV:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV).
Modified attack complexity (MAC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC).
Modified attack requirements (MAT:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT).
Modified privileges required (MPR:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR).
Modified user interaction (MUI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI).
Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric.
Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric.
Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric.
Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric.
Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric.
Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric.
Safety (supplemental) (S:X)
Not evaluated.
Automatable (supplemental) (AU:X)
Not evaluated.
Recovery (supplemental) (R:X)
Not evaluated.
Value density (supplemental) (V:X)
Not evaluated.
Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:X)
Not evaluated.
Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:X)
Not evaluated.
[email protected]
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/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: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.
2.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-8088

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-8088

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
rarlab winrar < 7.13 cpe:2.3:a:rarlab:winrar:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
dtsearch dtsearch < 2023.01 cpe:2.3:a:dtsearch:dtsearch:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-8088

URL Tags
https://www.win-rar.com/singlenewsview.html?&L=0&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=283&cHash=a64b4a8f662d3639dec8d65f47bc93c5 Release Notes
https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/08/high-severity-winrar-0-day-exploited-for-weeks-by-2-groups/ Press/Media Coverage
https://support.dtsearch.com/faq/dts0245.htm Third Party Advisory
https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2025-8088-detect-winrar-zero-day Third Party Advisory
https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2025-8088-mitigate-winrar-zero-day-using-srp-and-ifeo Mitigation Third Party Advisory
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-8088 US Government Resource
https://www.welivesecurity.com/en/eset-research/update-winrar-tools-now-romcom-and-others-exploiting-zero-day-vulnerability/#the-discovery-of-cve-2025-8088 Press/Media Coverage
cvelogic Threat Intelligence