GitHub Advisoryadvisory · crates.io
GHSA-89p7-7cq3-hhr2 rm: 'rm -rf ./' (and ./// variants) silently deletes current directory contents, bypassing dot protection
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-35363
- Ecosystem
- crates.io
- Packages
- uu_rm
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L
- Weaknesses
- CWE-22, CWE-693
- Reviewed
- 2026-07-06
Affected packages
• crates.io uu_rm: < 0.6.0 → fixed in 0.6.0
Description
`rm -rf .` is correctly refused, but `clean_trailing_slashes` normalizes `.///` to `./` while `path_is_current_or_parent_directory` only matches `.`/`..` (and `/.`/`/..`), not `./` or `../`. So `rm -rf ./` recursively deletes the directory's contents and then prints a misleading `cannot remove './': Invalid input`.
Impact: all files/subdirectories in the current directory are silently deleted; the misleading error makes users miss the recovery window. Recommendation: handle trailing-slash variants in `path_is_current_or_parent_directory`.
Remediation: Acknowledged by Canonical; fixed in commit d0e5af23.
---
_Reported by Zellic in the *uutils coreutils Program Security Assessment* (prepared for Canonical, Jan 20 2026), audited commit `3a07ffc5a9bd4c283e75afa548ba1f1957bad242`. Finding 3.60. Credit: Zellic._
_Upstream tracking issue: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/issues/9749 · CVE-2026-35363_
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-35363 A vulnerability in the rm utility of uutils coreutils allows the bypass of safeguard mechanisms intended to protect the current directory. vulnerability