GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Go
GHSA-4vr5-p2gc-h23p rclone archive extract allows S3 destination prefix escape via crafted archive paths
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-59732
- Ecosystem
- Go
- Packages
- github.com/rclone/rclone
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L
- Weaknesses
- CWE-22
- Reviewed
- 2026-08-05
Affected packages
• Go github.com/rclone/rclone: < 1.74.4 → fixed in 1.74.4
Description
Summary
`rclone archive extract` can write extracted files outside the user-selected destination prefix when extracting a crafted archive. A malicious archive entry containing parent path components such as `../` can escape the requested extraction prefix and create or overwrite sibling objects in the same bucket/path scope.
Details
The affected code path is in `cmd/archive/extract/extract.go`.
In `ArchiveExtract()`, the archive entry path is taken from `f.NameInArchive`. The code strips only a leading `./` prefix and then joins the archive entry path with the destination directory:
```go
remote := f.NameInArchive
remote = strings.TrimPrefix(remote, "./")
if dstDir != "" {
remote = path.Join(dstDir, remote)
}
_, err = operations.Rcat(ctx, dst, remote, fin, f.ModTime(), nil)
```
Parent path components such as `../` are not rejected before `path.Join()` is used.
When the destination is an S3-style remote such as:
```text
:s3:bucket/safe/prefix
```
rclone creates the destination filesystem rooted at `bucket/safe` and treats `prefix` as the destination directory. If the archive contains an entry named:
```text
../escaped-from-prefix.txt
```
then `path.Join("prefix", "../escaped-from-prefix.txt")` resolves to:
```text
escaped-from-prefix.txt
```
As a result, the S3 backend uploads the object to:
```text
bucket/safe/escaped-from-prefix.txt
```
instead of the expected destination:
```text
bucket/safe/prefix/escaped-from-prefix.txt
```
This allows an attacker-controlled archive to escape the selected extraction prefix on object-storage remotes.
PoC
Test environment:
• Windows 11
• rclone v1.74.3 official Windows amd64 binary
• Local fake S3 HTTP endpoint
• Crafted ZIP archive containing `../escaped-from-prefix.txt`
Steps to reproduce:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P_cLKFgiWSVSATB8500yP28jdzwt9FAt/view?usp=sharing
1. Extract the attached PoC ZIP.
2. Run the PoC script:
```powershell
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\run-poc.ps1 -RcloneExe "C:\path\to\rclone.exe"
```
3. The PoC creates a ZIP archive containing this entry:
```text
../escaped-from-prefix.txt
```
4. The PoC starts a local fake S3 endpoint and runs rclone with an S3-style destination prefix:
```powershell
rclone archive extract malicious.zip :s3:bucket/safe/prefix
```
5. Observe the fake S3 request log.
Expected safe behavior:
```text
PUT /bucket/safe/prefix/escaped-from-prefix.txt
```
Observed behavior:
```text
PUT /bucket/safe/escaped-from-prefix.txt?x-id=PutObject
```
This shows that the archive entry escaped the requested `safe/prefix` destination and was written under `safe/` instead.
The PoC package includes:
• `run-poc.ps1`
• `fake-s3-server.py`
• `README.md`
• `report-draft.md`
• captured proof logs
Impact
An attacker who supplies an archive that a victim extracts with `rclone archive extract` can cause extracted files to be written outside the destination prefix selected by the victim when the destination is an S3-style object storage remote.
Depending on the victim's configured remote credentials and bucket permissions, this may allow creation or overwrite of sibling objects outside the intended extraction directory/prefix.
This does not require compromising the S3 service itself. The attack relies on the victim extracting an attacker-controlled archive with rclone into an object-storage prefix.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-59732 Rclone is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory weakness
References
- https://github.com/rclone/rclone/security/advisories/GHSA-4vr5-p2gc-h23p web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-59732 advisory
- https://github.com/rclone/rclone/commit/1a746732441e8158f32fab35924b23701e719a8c web
- https://github.com/rclone/rclone/commit/d11efe0d58fe6a2d6d90675bb9d8ee5840c51e1d web
- https://github.com/rclone/rclone package
- https://github.com/rclone/rclone/releases/tag/v1.74.4 web