Published May 26, 2026Sources checked Nov 11, 2026
9.1CRITICALCVSS out of 10
What this means
Review the available evidence
CVE-2026-42496 and is rated Critical severity with a CVSS score of 9.1. It is not in the current CISA KEV record we collected. That does not prove exploitation has not occurred.
What to do next
Remediation and response
Microsoft Security Response Center guidance
Vendor revision: Jun 9, 2026
CBL-Mariner Releases
Vendor-listed releases
5.38.2-510
CISA KEVNot listedBased on the latest collected catalog
EPSS0.5%Estimated 30-day exploitation probability
Ransomware useNot markedCISA KEV ransomware field
Threat actors0Source-linked actor relationships
Overview
What is CVE-2026-42496?
Archive::Tar versions before 3.08 for Perl extract symlinks with attacker controlled targets outside the extraction directory.
_make_special_file() passes the tar header's linkname to symlink() without validating it against absolute paths or .. segments. The secure-extract mode check that guards regular file extraction does not cover the symlink target.
A subsequent open through the extracted name reads or writes the attacker chosen path.