Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
CWE-59
The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.
We track 491 vulnerabilities of this type. 100% are rated high or critical, and the average CVSS score is 8.0. 25 have been exploited in real attacks.
How this weakness is prevented
- Architecture and Design: Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system. Denying access to a file can prevent an attacker from replacing that file with a link to a sensitive file. Ensure good compartmentalization in the system to provide protected areas that can be trusted.
Latest Improper Link Resolution Before File Access vulnerabilities
- 7.8 High severity
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
A flaw was found in libvirt. A local attacker, specifically a process running as the confined `swtpm` user, could exploit a symlink-following vulnerability in the `virFileChownFiles()` function. By planting a symbolic link within the `swtpm` state directory, t
- 7.1 High severity
go-git: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
go-git is an extensible git implementation library written in pure Go. Prior to 5.19.2 and 6.0.0-alpha.5, worktree operations (including checkout, status, and add) resolve symbolic links inside the working tree without confining resolution to the worktree boun
- 8.7 High severity
nx: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Nx is a monorepo solution for TypeScript and polyglot codebases. From version 20.8.0 until 22.7.7 and 23.0.2, the Nx self-hosted HTTP remote cache extracts downloaded cache artifacts without constraining where files are written. A malicious or on-path (MITM) r
- 9.1 Critical severity
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in software hardening releases that address multiple intern
- 7.8 High severity
CCleaner: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Link following vulnerability in the Uninstaller component in CCleaner prior to 7.10.1464 on Windows allows a local, low-privileged attacker to escalate privileges to SYSTEM via a symlink/junction created during application uninstallation, which CCleaner follow
- 7.8 High severity
Monitor driver: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Dell Monitor driver, version 1.0.0.0, contains an Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following') vulnerability. A low privileged attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to Elevation of Privileges.
- 7.8 High severity
Total Security: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
G DATA Total Security Backup Service Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of G DATA Total Security. An attacker must first obtain the ability to exec
- 9.2 Critical severity
LIP-ME20xC: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Improper Link Resolution (CWE-59) in `/usr/bin/larm_starter` in Loytec L-INX, L-GATE, L-ROC, L-IOB, L-DALI, L-VIS and L-PAD through 8.4.16 on LINX-A64 allows an authenticated `larmapp` attacker to make `/etc/passwd` writable by the `larmapp` group (leading to
- 7.5 High severity
BuildKit: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
BuildKit's cache mount source= selector on Windows Container on Windows (WCOW) workers does not detect NTFS directory junctions placed inside the cache root. A build authored by an untrusted user on a WCOW-configured BuildKit daemon can read arbitrary host fil
- 8.7 High severity
Switch Engine (EXOS): Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
The mv, cp, and rm file utilities exposed within the ExtremeXOS (EXOS) shell environment fail to safely canonicalize paths and follow symbolic links outside of the intended privilege boundary. An attacker with low-privilege CLI access can create a symbolic lin
- 7.1 High severity
oras-go: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
oras-go is a Go library for managing OCI artifacts. Prior to 2.6.2, ensureLinkPath in content/file/utils.go:262-275 validates a hardlink target relative to the extract base but returns the unresolved target, causing os.Link("victim.secret", "<extract_base>/pay
- 8.8 High severity
rclone: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Rclone is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers. Prior to 1.74.4, with -l/--links, rclone serializes symlinks as .rclonelink text objects and recreates them on a local destination without validating
- 9.1 Critical severity
decompress: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
The decompress package for Node.js extracts archives. Prior to 10.2.1 and 11.1.3, archive extraction can create files and links outside the target directory. When extracting an archive to a directory, a crafted archive can read or write files outside that dire
- 7.8 High severity
Windows 10 Version 1809: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Improper link resolution before file access ('link following') in Windows Projected File System allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
- 7.8 High severity
Windows 10 Version 1607: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Improper link resolution before file access ('link following') in Windows Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
- 7.7 High severity
DBD::File: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
DBD::File versions before 1.651 for Perl do not ensure the table file is not a symlink to an untrusted location. The complete_table_name method builds the absolute table file path without checking whether the file is a symbolic link. A link inside the data dir
- 7.0 High severity
Total Security: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
An Improper link resolution before file access ('link following') vulnerability in the File Shredder module as used in Bitdefender Total Security and Internet Security on Windows allows a less-privileged local user to elevate rights by leveraging a race condit
- 7.1 High severity
OpenClaw: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
OpenClaw versions before 2026.6.9 contain a symlink following vulnerability in the mirror sync feature that allows lower-trust callers to perform actions requiring stronger authorization. Attackers can exploit remote symlink parents to bypass policy checks and
- 7.3 High severity
Glary Utilities: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Glarysoft Glary Utilities Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of Glarysoft Glary Utilities. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low
- 7.5 High severity
Decompress: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
decompress before 4.2.2 allows arbitrary symlink creation during archive extraction. When processing symlink entries (type === 'symlink'), the x.linkname field from the archive is passed directly to fs.symlink() without validation (index.js line 121). The prev
- 8.7 High severity
Nomad: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
HashiCorp Nomad and Nomad Enterprise are vulnerable to a sandbox escape in the Docker task driver that may allow a job submitter to bind-mount a host path into a container even when volume bind mounts are disabled, potentially leading to reading and writing fi
- 9.6 Critical severity
crawl4ai: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Crawl4AI is an open-source LLM-friendly web crawler and scraper. Prior to 0.9.0, when the crawler saves a downloaded file, the destination filename was taken from attacker-influenced input and joined to the downloads directory with no confinement. A filename c
- 7.4 High severity
Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based): Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Improper link resolution before file access ('link following') in Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) allows an unauthorized attacker to disclose information over a network.
- 9.1 Critical severity
Gitea Open Source Git Server: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Gitea versions before 1.25.5 mishandle path resolution during template repository generation, allowing template processing to read or write through symlinked or otherwise non-regular paths.
- 7.8 High severity
Device Management Agent: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Dell Device Management Agent, versions prior to DDMA 26.05, contain an Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following’) vulnerability. A low privileged attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to Elevation
- 8.8 High severity
claude-code: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. From 2.1.38 until 2.1.163, Claude Code's worktree handling allowed creation of worktrees named ".git" and navigation to worktrees outside the sandbox context, enabling git directory confusion attacks. By exploiting symlin
- 7.1 High severity
attr: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
attr before version 2.6.0 contains a symlink traversal vulnerability in the getfattr and setfattr utilities that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by replacing a pathname component with a symbolic link during directory hierarchy traversal. Attacker
- 7.1 High severity
acl: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
acl before version 2.4.0 contains a symlink traversal vulnerability in the libacl pathname-based functions acl_get_file(), acl_set_file(), acl_extended_file(), and acl_delete_def_file() that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by replacing any pathna
- 9.6 Critical severity
budibase: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Budibase is an open-source low-code platform. Prior to 3.39.9, `POST /api/pwa/process-zip` at packages/server/src/api/routes/static.ts:24 accepts a builder-uploaded .zip, extracts it with [email protected] into a temp directory, then for each entry listed in i
- 8.8 High severity
dokku: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Dokku is a docker-powered PaaS. Prior to 0.38.2, the git:from-archive and certs:add commands extract user-supplied tar/zip archives into temporary directories without sanitizing member paths or preventing symlink traversal. GNU tar creates symlinks during extr
- 8.2 High severity
filebrowser: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
File Browser is a file managing interface for uploading, deleting, previewing, renaming, and editing files within a specified directory. Prior to 2.63.16, a scoped, non-admin File Browser user holding only the Create permission can delete arbitrary files outsi
- 7.5 High severity
filebrowser: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
File Browser is a file managing interface for uploading, deleting, previewing, renaming, and editing files within a specified directory. Prior to 2.63.14, it does not stop the HTTP file handlers from following symbolic links before they open, serve, write, sha
- 9.8 Critical severity
cursor: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Cursor is a code editor built for programming with AI. Prior to 3.0, Cursor runs agent terminal commands in a sandbox by default. Before a Write, the agent canonicalizes the target path to confirm it stays inside the workspace, but when canonicalization fails
- 9.0 Critical severity
gogs: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Gogs is an open source self-hosted Git service. Prior to 0.14.3, (*Repository).UploadRepoFiles checks for symlinks only on the leaf of the upload target (osx.IsSymlink(targetPath)). The siblings UpdateRepoFile, DeleteRepoFile, and GetDiffPreview use hasSymlink
- 8.0 High severity
py7zr: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
py7zr is a Python-based library and utility to support 7zip archive compression, decompression, encryption and decryption. Versions 1.1.2 and below contain an an arbitrary file write vulnerability, which allows symbolic links to be recreated outside the destin
- 8.1 High severity
ProFTPD: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
ProFTPD through 1.3.9b and 1.3.10rc2 contains an access control bypass vulnerability that allows authenticated FTP users to circumvent Directory ACL restrictions by prefixing paths with /proc/self/root in the RNFR command handler. Attackers can exploit the unr
- 7.8 High severity
CPython: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
tarfile.extractall() with the 'data' or 'tar' filter could be bypassed by a crafted archive where a hardlink references a symlink stored at a deeper name than the hardlink itself. The extraction fallback validated the symlink at it's archived location but recr
- 7.8 High severity
Wyse Management Suite (WMS): Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Dell Wyse Management Suite (WMS), versions prior to WMS 2605, contain an Improper Link Resolution Before File Access vulnerability. A low privileged attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to Unauthorized access.
- 7.0 High severity
Microsoft Malware Protection Engine: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Microsoft is aware of an elevation of privilege in the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine in Microsoft Defender publicly referred to as "RoguePlanet ".
- 7.8 High severity
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle…: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
A symlink following vulnerability was found in the ABRT post-create event handler scripts in libreport. Event scripts write output files using shell redirections without the O_NOFOLLOW flag. If the target file is replaced with a symlink, the shell process runn