high 7.8

CVE-2020-28949 kev in the critical feed json

Archive_Tar through 1.4.10 has :// filename sanitization only to address phar attacks, and thus any other stream-wrapper attack (such as fi…

published 2020-11-19 5y ago modified 2026-06-17 4mo ago also EUVD-2021-0783

cvss: 7.8; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Exploited; added 2022-08-25
epss: 84.6%; EPSS 84.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 99.7%
public exploits: 1; Metasploit

Archive_Tar through 1.4.10 has :// filename sanitization only to address phar attacks, and thus any other stream-wrapper attack (such as file:// to overwrite files) can still succeed.

Patch / fix

cisa required action Apply updates per vendor instructions.

fixed in 2 distros 6

php archive_tar 1.4.12
drupal drupal 7.75, 8.8.12, 8.9.10, 9.0.9

debian ubuntu red hat almalinux rocky linux alpine

php-pear Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:1.10.9+submodules+notgz-1.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28949

php-pear Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:1.10.1+submodules+notgz-6ubuntu0.2
php-pear Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1:1.10.5+submodules+notgz-1ubuntu1.18.04.2
php-pear Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 1:1.10.9+submodules+notgz-1ubuntu0.20.04.1
drupal7 Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 7.26-1ubuntu0.1+esm2
drupal7 Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 7.44-1ubuntu1~16.04.0+esm2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-28949

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

php-pear RHEL 7 1:1.9.4-23.el7_9
libzip RHEL 8, RHEL 8.4 EUS 1.6.1-1.module+el8.3.0+6678+b09f589e
php RHEL 8 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d
php-gd RHEL 8 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d
php-cli RHEL 8 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d
php-dba RHEL 8 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d
php-dbg RHEL 8 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d
php-ffi RHEL 8 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d

red hat advisories RHSA-2022:7340 RHSA-2022:6541 RHSA-2022:6542

php AlmaLinux 8 7.4.19-4.module_el8.6.0+3238+624bf8b8
php AlmaLinux 8 7.4.19-4.module_el8.6.0+3239+bedf0508
libzip AlmaLinux 8 1.6.1-1.module_el8.6.0+2750+78feabcb
libzip AlmaLinux 8 1.6.1-1.module_el8.6.0+3239+bedf0508
php-gd AlmaLinux 8 7.4.19-4.module_el8.6.0+3238+624bf8b8
php-gd AlmaLinux 8 7.4.19-4.module_el8.6.0+3239+bedf0508
php-cli AlmaLinux 8 7.4.19-4.module_el8.6.0+3239+bedf0508
php-cli AlmaLinux 8 7.4.19-4.module_el8.6.0+3238+624bf8b8

almalinux advisories ALSA-2022:6542

php Rocky Linux 8 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+1006+0d5a469f
libzip Rocky Linux 8 1.6.1-1.module+el8.6.0+789+2130c178
libzip Rocky Linux 8 1.6.1-1.module+el8.4.0+415+e936cba3
php-pear Rocky Linux 8 1:1.10.13-1.module+el8.7.0+1067+0a7071cc
php-pear Rocky Linux 8 1:1.10.13-1.module+el8.6.0+1006+0d5a469f
php-pecl-rrd Rocky Linux 8 2.0.1-1.module+el8.4.0+414+2e7afcdd
php-pecl-zip Rocky Linux 8 1.18.2-1.module+el8.6.0+789+2130c178
php-pecl-zip Rocky Linux 8 1.18.2-1.module+el8.4.0+415+e936cba3

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2022:6542

drupal7 Alpine 3.20, Alpine 3.19, Alpine 3.18 +7 more 7.75-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2020-28949

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Is CVE-2020-28949 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-28949 updated 2026-11-07 cvss 7.1

Archive_Tar: improper filename sanitization leads to file overwrites

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 php-pear
affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 php-pear Red Hat Software Collections rh-php73-php-pear
affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) php 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d, libzip 1.6.1-1.module+el8.3.0+6678+b09f589e, php-gd 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d, php-cli 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d, php-dba 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d, php-dbg 7.4.19-4.module+el8.6.0+16316+906f6c6d, +28 more
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:6542
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.8.4) php 7.4.6-5.module+el8.4.0+15727+276bb227, libzip 1.6.1-1.module+el8.3.0+6678+b09f589e, php-gd 7.4.6-5.module+el8.4.0+15727+276bb227, php-cli 7.4.6-5.module+el8.4.0+15727+276bb227, php-dba 7.4.6-5.module+el8.4.0+15727+276bb227, php-dbg 7.4.6-5.module+el8.4.0+15727+276bb227, +28 more
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:6541
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) php-pear 1.9.4-23.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) php-pear 1.9.4-23.el7_9
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:7340

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

2020-11-17 First public exploit (Metasploit exploit/multi/fileformat/archive_tar_arb_file_write)
2020-11-19 Published
2022-08-25 Added to CISA KEV
2022-09-15 CISA patch deadline
2025-02-07 CISA SSVC: exploitation active

Known exploited

Added: 4y ago (2022-08-25)
Patch by: 2022-09-15 (4y ago)
Ransomware: Not known
Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Vendor, product: PEAR, Archive_Tar
CISA name: PEAR Archive_Tar Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: Active, exploited in the wild
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total
Assessed: last yr. (2025-02-07)

Exploit prediction

84.55% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.7% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

Metasploit exploit/multi/fileformat/archive_tar_arb_file_write PEAR Archive_Tar 1.4.10 Arbitrary File Write metasploit exploit, excellent rank, 2020-11-17
github.com https://github.com/pear/Archive_Tar/issues/33 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
packetstormsecurity.com http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/161095/PEAR-Archive_Tar-Arbitrary-File-Write.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CISA ADP	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	6.8	AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

References

github.com /pear/Archive_Tar/issues/33
exploit, issue-tracking, vendor-advisory
packetstormsecurity.com /files/161095/PEAR-Archive_Tar-Arbitrary-File-Write.html
exploit, third-party-advisory, vdb-entry
lists.fedoraproject.org /archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/4V35LBRM6HBCXBVCITKQ4UEBTXO2EG7B/
vendor-advisory, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
lists.fedoraproject.org /archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/NBYZSHYTIOBK6V7C4N7TP6KIKCRKLVWP/
vendor-advisory, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
lists.fedoraproject.org /archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/KWM4CTMEGAC4I2CHYNJVSROY4CVXVEUT/
vendor-advisory, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
lists.fedoraproject.org /archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/5KSFM672XW3X6BR7TVKRD63SLZGKK437/
vendor-advisory, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
debian.org /security/2020/dsa-4817
vendor-advisory, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
security.gentoo.org /glsa/202101-23
vendor-advisory, third-party-advisory
lists.fedoraproject.org /archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/VJQQYDAOWHD6RDITDRPHFW7WY6BS3V5N/
vendor-advisory, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
lists.fedoraproject.org /archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/42GPGVVFTLJYAKRI75IVB5R45NYQGEUR/
vendor-advisory, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
drupal.org /sa-core-2020-013
third-party-advisory
lists.debian.org /debian-lts-announce/2020/11/msg00045.html
mailing-list, third-party-advisory
cisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-28949
government-resource, us-government-resource

Sources

CVE List CVE-2020-28949
NVD CVE-2020-28949

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

json critical feed