Description
pacman before 5.1.3 allows directory traversal when installing a remote package via a specified URL "pacman -U <url>" due to an unsanitized file name received from a Content-Disposition header. pacman renames the downloaded package file to match the name given in this header. However, pacman did not sanitize this name, which may contain slashes, before calling rename(). A malicious server (or a network MitM if downloading over HTTP) can send a Content-Disposition header to make pacman place the file anywhere in the filesystem, potentially leading to arbitrary root code execution. Notably, this bypasses pacman's package signature checking. This occurs in curl_download_internal in lib/libalpm/dload.c.
Metrics
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HWeakness enumeration
Affected software
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| n/a | n/a | n/a |
References
- https://git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/?h=release/5.1.x&id=1bf767234363f7ad5933af3f7ce267c123017bdeMailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/?id=9702703633bec2c007730006de2aeec8587dfc84Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/?id=d197d8ab82cf10650487518fb968067897a12775Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/?h=release/5.1.x&id=1bf767234363f7ad5933af3f7ce267c123017bdeMailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/?id=9702703633bec2c007730006de2aeec8587dfc84Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/?id=d197d8ab82cf10650487518fb968067897a12775Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
Timeline
- Published
- Mar 11, 2019
- Last modified
- Jun 17, 2026
- NVD status
- Modified