CVE-2026-26157 | Busybox: busybox: arbitrary file overwrite and potential code execution via incomplete path sanitization

Exp

A flaw was found in BusyBox. Incomplete path sanitization in its archive extraction utilities allows an attacker to craft malicious archives that when extracted, and under specific conditions, may write to files outside the intended directory. This can lead to arbitrary file overwrite, potentially enabling code execution through the modification of sensitive system files.

Published: 2026-02-11 Last update: 2026-06-02 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Deferred，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-26157 is rated Exploit Available (54.9/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.14%). 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-2026-26157

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
52538 exploit_db edb 2026-04-30 Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-26157

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 2026-05-01 0.01% 0.14% +0.14%
2 2026-02-12 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-26157

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.0 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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.
 1.0 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-26157

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-26157

GHSA-xm63-5pjx-vrhp · Severity: high — A flaw was found in BusyBox. Incomplete path sanitization in its archive extraction utilities...

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-26157

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-26157 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (busybox), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 3, resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-26157
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-26157
suse high CVE-2026-26157 severity important: SUSE including 106 source package names (13.2-9.19:coreutils-9.4-5.1, 2.1.3-6.58:coreutils-9.4-5.1, …), 221 product×package rows across 61 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-iso-image, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-os-container, … (61 product lines)): Fixed 218, First Fixed 3. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-26157/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-26157 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (busybox), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-26157

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-26157

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2026-26157

cvelogic Threat Intelligence