How severe is CVE-2020-28949?

CVE-2020-28949 has a CVSS score of 7.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2020-28949?

CVE-2020-28949 affects the following packages: pear/archive_tar (Packagist). Ecosystems affected: Packagist.

How do I fix CVE-2020-28949?

Update pear/archive_tar to version 1.4.11 or later. Run your dependency manager's update command and verify no transitive dependencies pin the vulnerable version. Use O3 Security's SCA scanner to confirm the fix is applied across your entire dependency tree.

Is CVE-2020-28949 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 6 known exploit references for CVE-2020-28949, including 5 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2020-28949?

CVE-2020-28949 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 93.4%, placing it in the 100th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2020-28949 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2020-28949 (PEAR Archive_Tar Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2022-08-25. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-09-15. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

When was CVE-2020-28949 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-28949 was published on November 19, 2020 and was last updated on April 16, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CISA KEV·Added 2022-08-25 — agencies required to remediate by 2022-09-15

🐘 Packagist

CVE-2020-28949

HIGH

Multiple vulnerabilities through filename manipulation in Archive_Tar

Also known asBIT-drupal-2020-28948BIT-drupal-2020-28949CVE-2020-28948DRUPAL-CORE-2020-013GHSA-75c5-f4gw-38r9 GHSA-jh5x-hfhg-78jq

Published

Nov 19, 2020

Updated

Apr 16, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

6 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

93.4%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk100th percentile0.00%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐘pear/archive_tar

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

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.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐘Packagist	`pear/archive_tar`	all versions	1.4.11

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.