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
- 7.1 High severity
kitty: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Kitty is a cross-platform GPU based terminal. In versions 0.47.0 and 0.47.1, `kitten dnd` can allow a malicious remote drag-and-drop source to overwrite or truncate arbitrary files writable by the local kitty user. Remote `text/uri-list` drops are staged in a
- 9.6 Critical severity
Assisted Migration Agent: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
A flaw was found in assisted-migration-agent. An unauthenticated attacker, located on the same local area network (LAN), can exploit a path traversal vulnerability. By crafting a specially designed gzipped tarball, the attacker can bypass security checks and w
- 7.3 High severity
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
A local privilege escalation vulnerability was found in the ansible.posix authorized_key module. The module's keyfile() function uses os.chown() instead of os.lchown() and opens files without O_NOFOLLOW when managing SSH authorized keys. An unprivileged local
- 7.8 High severity
Windows 10 Version 1607: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Improper link resolution before file access ('link following') in Windows Collaborative Translation Framework allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
- 8.8 High severity
froxlor: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Froxlor is open source server administration software. Version 2.3.6 contains a symlink-following flaw in the root-owned SSH key synchronization path used for customer FTP users. The provisioning code appends public keys to `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` under a cus
- 7.1 High severity
CodexBar: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
CodexBar prior to 0.32.0 contains an insecure temporary file handling vulnerability that allows local attackers to access sensitive credentials or tamper with build artifacts by exploiting predictable file paths in the release notarization workflow. Attackers
- 9.9 Critical severity
portainer: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Portainer Community Edition is a lightweight service delivery platform for containerized applications that can be used to manage Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes and ACI environments. From 2.33.0 to before 2.33.8, 2.39.2, and 2.41.0, Portainer supports deploying stac
- 7.7 High severity
Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.17: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-exportserver component. An attacker with specific namespace-level access can exploit a path traversal vulnerability in the VMExport directory endpoint. By placing a symbolic link (symlink) within an exported filesystem Persi
- 7.9 High severity
pam_usb: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. Prior to 0.8.7, symlink attacks on pad directory and pad files enable authentication bypass and root file corruption. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.8.7.
- 7.5 High severity
Jenkins Pipeline: Groovy Libraries Plugin: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Jenkins Pipeline: Groovy Libraries Plugin 797.v90ea_a_9b_e45a_0 and earlier does not prohibit symbolic links in shared libraries, allowing attackers able to control the content of a library used by a Pipeline job to read arbitrary files on the Jenkins controll
- 9.9 Critical severity
Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.12: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing
- 7.5 High severity
Archive::Tar: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Archive::Tar versions before 3.08 for Perl extract hardlinks to attacker controlled paths outside the extraction directory. _make_special_file() passes the tar header's linkname to link() without validating it against absolute paths or .. segments, creating a
- 9.1 Critical severity
Archive::Tar: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
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 s
- 7.8 High severity
TrendAI Apex One: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
A link following vulnerability in the Trend Micro Apex One scan engine could allow a local attacker to escalate privileges on affected installations. Please note: an attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in
- 8.1 High severity
Netatalk: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
An improper link resolution vulnerability in Netatalk 3.0.2 through 4.4.2 allows a remote authenticated attacker to read arbitrary files or overwrite arbitrary files via attacker-controlled symlink creation.
- 7.8 High severity
Microsoft Defender Link Following Exploited
Improper link resolution before file access ('link following') in Microsoft Defender allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
- 7.4 High severity
apm: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Microsoft APM is an open-source, community-driven dependency manager for AI agents. From 0.5.4 to 0.12.4, two primitive integrators in apm-cli enumerate package files with bare Path.glob() / Path.rglob() calls and read each match with Path.read_text(), transpa
- 7.8 High severity
gitoxide: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
gitoxide is an implementation of git written in Rust. Prior to 0.21.1, a malicious tree can be constructed that will, when checked out with gitoxide, permit writing an attacker-controlled symlink into any existing directory the user has write access to. During
- 7.5 High severity
Empirbus Wireless Display Unit Firmware: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
The locally served web site on the Garmin WDU (v1 1.4.6 and v2 5.0) allows a symlink attack. If a malicious graphics package containing symlinks is uploaded, the web server follows the supplied links when serving content. No mechanisms to restrict those link t
- 8.5 High severity
vm2: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
vm2 is an open source vm/sandbox for Node.js. In 3.10.5, NodeVM's require.root path restriction can be bypassed using filesystem symlinks, allowing sandboxed code to load modules from outside the allowed root directory in host context. Because path validation
- 7.8 High severity
claude-code: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
The Claude Desktop app gives you Claude Code with a graphical interface built for running multiple sessions side by side. Prior to 1.3834.0, the CoworkVMService component in Claude Desktop for Windows ran as SYSTEM and did not validate whether the VM bundle di
- 8.5 High severity
JunoClaw is an agentic AI platform built on Juno Network.
JunoClaw is an agentic AI platform built on Juno Network. Prior to 0.x.y-security-1, the upload_wasm MCP tool accepted a filesystem path from the agent and uploaded whatever bytes the path resolved to, with no validation of location, symlink target, file size,
- 7.5 High severity
apko: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
apko allows users to build and publish OCI container images built from apk packages. From version 0.14.8 to before version 1.2.5, a crafted .apk could install a TypeSymlink tar entry whose target pointed outside the build root, and a subsequent directory-creat
- 7.5 High severity
PraisonAI: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
PraisonAI is a multi-agent teams system. Prior to version 4.6.37, the _safe_extractall helper that all recipe pull, recipe publish, and recipe unpack flows route through validates each archive member's name for absolute paths, .. segments, and resolved-path es
- 7.0 High severity
Advanced SystemCare: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
A security flaw has been discovered in IObit Advanced SystemCare 19. This affects an unknown part of the file ASC.exe of the component Service. The manipulation results in symlink following. Attacking locally is a requirement. This attack is characterized by h
- 7.5 High severity
IntelliJ IDEA: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
In JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA before 2024.3.7.1, 2025.1.7.1, 2025.2.6.2, 2025.3.4.1, 2026.1.1 reading arbitrary local files was possible via built-in web server
- 7.1 High severity
Dell/Alienware Purchased Apps: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Dell/Alienware Purchased Apps, versions prior to 1.1.31.0, 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 Arbitrary F
- 8.8 High severity
Pardus About: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Improper link resolution before file access ('link following') vulnerability in TUBITAK BILGEM Software Technologies Research Institute Pardus About allows Symlink Attack. This issue affects Pardus About: before 1.2.2.
- 9.6 Critical severity
OpenClaw: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
OpenClaw before 2026.3.31 contains a sandbox escape vulnerability allowing attackers to traverse directory boundaries through symlink exploitation during file synchronization operations. Remote attackers can bypass sandbox restrictions by crafting malicious sy
- 8.1 High severity
OpenClaw: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
OpenClaw before 2026.3.31 contains a symlink following vulnerability in SSH sandbox tar upload that allows remote attackers to write arbitrary files. Attackers can exploit this by uploading tar archives containing symlinks to escape the sandbox and overwrite f
- 8.4 High severity
opentelemetry-ebpf-instrumentation: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
OpenTelemetry eBPF Instrumentation provides eBPF instrumentation based on the OpenTelemetry standard. From 0.4.0 to before 0.8.0, a flaw in the Java agent injection path allows a local attacker controlling a Java workload to overwrite arbitrary host files when
- 7.8 High severity
radare2: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
radare2 prior to 6.1.4 contains a path traversal vulnerability in its project notes handling that allows attackers to read or write files outside the configured project directory by importing a malicious .zrp archive containing a symlinked notes.txt file. Atta
- 7.8 High severity
Tenable Nessus, Tenable Nessus Agent: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
This vulnerability allows an attacker to create a junction, enabling the deletion of arbitrary files with SYSTEM privileges. As a result, this condition potentially facilitates arbitrary code execution, whereby an attacker may exploit the vulnerability to exec
- 7.5 High severity
froxlor: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Froxlor is open source server administration software. Prior to version 2.3.6, `DataDump.add()` constructs the export destination path from user-supplied input without passing the `$fixed_homedir` parameter to `FileDir::makeCorrectDir()`, bypassing the symlink
- 7.7 High severity
coreutils: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
A vulnerability in the rm utility of uutils coreutils allows a bypass of the --preserve-root protection. The implementation uses a path-string check rather than comparing device and inode numbers to identify the root directory. An attacker or accidental user c
- 7.8 High severity
compressing: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Compressing is a compressing and uncompressing lib for node. Prior to 2.1.1 and 1.10.5, the patch for CVE-2026-24884 relies on a purely logical string validation within the isPathWithinParent utility. This check verifies if a resolved path string starts with t
- 7.7 High severity
weblate: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
Weblate is a web based localization tool. In versions prior to 5.17, the ZIP download feature didn't verify downloaded files, potentially following symlinks outside the repository. This issue has been fixed in version 5.17.
- 7.1 High severity
Diagnostics: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
During an internal security assessment, a potential vulnerability was discovered in Lenovo Diagnostics and the HardwareScanAddin used in Lenovo Vantage that, during installation or when using hardware scan, could allow a local authenticated user to perform an
- 10.0 Critical severity
flatpak: UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following
Flatpak is a Linux application sandboxing and distribution framework. Prior to 1.16.4, the Flatpak portal accepts paths in the sandbox-expose options which can be app-controlled symlinks pointing at arbitrary paths. Flatpak run mounts the resolved host path in
- 8.7 High severity
macOS: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
This issue was addressed with improved handling of symlinks. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.6. An app may be able to break out of its sandbox.