CVE-2026-44788 — Vulnerability in SharpCompress — CVE Details

### Summary A path traversal vulnerability in `IArchive.WriteToDirectory()` allows a malicious archive to create directories outside the intended extraction root. For TAR archives, this can be escalated to arbitrary file writes by chaining with a symlink entry, giving a full write primitive on the target filesystem subject to the permissions of the running process. ### Details The vulnerable code is in the directory-entry branch of `WriteToDirectoryInternal` (sync, `IArchiveExtensions.cs:48–61`) and `WriteToDirectoryAsyncInternal` (async, `IAsyncArchiveExtensions.cs:70–84`): ```csharp var dirPath = Path.Combine(destinationDirectory, entry.Key); Directory.CreateDirectory(Path.GetDirectoryName(dirPath + "/")); ``` No `Path.GetFullPath()` normalisation and no bounds check are applied before the `Directory.CreateDirectory` call. Two .NET `Path.Combine` behaviours make this exploitable: - **Relative traversal**: `Path.Combine("/safe/extract", "../../evil")` → the OS resolves `..` segments on the raw path, placing the directory outside the extraction root. - **Absolute path override**: `Path.Combine("/safe/extract", "/tmp/evil")` → returns `"/tmp/evil"` — the base is discarded entirely for rooted paths. File entries are **not** directly affected — they route through `ExtractionMethods.WriteEntryToDirectory` which applies the correct guard (`GetFullPath` + `StartsWith`, see `ExtractionMethods.cs:54–65`). The directory-entry branch is a separate fast-path that was added without that guard. Affected archive formats: ZIP and TAR (non-solid). Solid archives and 7-Zip use the reader path which calls the secure method. #### Escalation to arbitrary file writes (TAR only) `Path.GetFullPath` on .NET does not resolve symlinks — it only normalises `.` and `..` segments. This means the file-entry guard in `ExtractionMethods.WriteEntryToDirectory` can be bypassed via symlink chaining in TAR archives when the caller supplies a `SymbolicLinkHandler`: ```csharp archive.WriteToDirectory("/safe/extract", new ExtractionOptions { ExtractFullPath = true, SymbolicLinkHandler = (linkPath, linkTarget) => File.CreateSymbolicLink(linkPath, linkTarget) // naive — no validation of linkTarget }); ``` Attack sequence in a single TAR archive: 1. **Symlink entry** — `link` → `../evil_outside/` The `SymbolicLinkHandler` creates `/safe/extract/link` pointing outside the extraction root. 2. **File entry** — `link/secret.txt` `ExtractionMethods.WriteEntryToDirectory` computes: - `destdir = Path.GetFullPath("/safe/extract/link")` → `"/safe/extract/link"` — textually inside root, check passes ✓ - `File.Open("/safe/extract/link/secret.txt")` — OS follows symlink, file is written to `/evil_outside/secret.txt` The library does not validate `linkTarget` before passing it to the caller's handler, and the XML docs do not warn that it may be a traversal path. The idiomatic handler implementation above is therefore silently exploitable. ZIP does not support symlinks in SharpCompress (`ZipEntry.LinkTarget` always returns `null`), so this escalation is TAR-only. | Attack | ZIP | TAR | |--------|-----|-----| | Directory traversal (escape extraction root) | Yes | Yes | | Escalate to arbitrary file writes via symlink chain | No | Yes (if caller provides `SymbolicLinkHandler`) | **Recommended fix** — apply the same pattern from `ExtractionMethods.WriteEntryToDirectory` to both affected files: ```csharp var fullDestDir = Path.GetFullPath(destinationDirectory); if (!fullDestDir.EndsWith(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar)) fullDestDir += Path.DirectorySeparatorChar; var dirPath = Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(fullDestDir, entry.Key)); if (!dirPath.StartsWith(fullDestDir, PathComparison)) throw new ExtractionException( "Entry is trying to create a directory outside of the destination directory."); Directory.CreateDirectory(dirPath); ``` Additionally, the library should validate `LinkTarget` before invoking the caller's `SymbolicLinkHandler`, or document clearly that callers must validate it themselves. ### PoC A self-contained .NET console app is available at: `https://github.com/svenclaesson/poc-sharpcompress-traversal` ``` git clone https://github.com/svenclaesson/poc-sharpcompress-traversal cd poc-sharpcompress-traversal dotnet run ``` The PoC crafts a ZIP with three directory entries (`../../escaped_relative/`, `/tmp/escaped_absolute/`, `safe_subdir/`) using `System.IO.Compression` (stdlib), then extracts with SharpCompress. Output shows `[ESCAPED]` for the two malicious entries and `[ok]` for the legitimate one, on both sync and async APIs. Tested against SharpCompress 0.47.4 (latest NuGet). ### Impact This is a path traversal / zip slip vulnerability (CWE-22). Any application that calls `archive.WriteToDirectory()` on an untrusted archive is affected — which covers the primary documented extraction API. For ZIP archives the impact is limited to arbitrary directory creation, which can be used to stage privilege escalation (e.g. cron drop-ins, XDG config paths, service spool directories) or shadow expected paths to alter application behaviour. For TAR archives, callers that implement a `SymbolicLinkHandler` — which is the only way to faithfully restore a TAR — are exposed to a full arbitrary file write primitive via the symlink chaining described above.