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 1.4.11 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-28949 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2020-28949 in my Packagist dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for pear/archive_tar, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2020-28949 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

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 84.6%, 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.

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 October 24, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐘

🐘 Packagist

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

CVE-2020-28949 — archive_tar

HIGHFix: pear/Archive_Tar@0670a05

CVE-2020-28949 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in pear/archive_tar. 6 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for pear/archive_tar — see the affected versions and patch details below.

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

Oct 24, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

6 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 23, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

CISA’s SSVC triage classifies this CVE as under active exploitation.
A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2020-28949.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

84.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2020-28949 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

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. See: https://github.com/pear/Archive_Tar/issues/33

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐘Packagist	`pear/archive_tar`	all versions	1.4.11`composer require pear/archive_tar:^1.4.11`

Affected Products

4 products · 11 configurations

debian linuxdebian

2 versions

9.010.0

Application

drupaldrupal

≥ 9.0.0 && < 9.0.9

range

fedorafedoraproject

4 versions

32333435

Application

archive tarphp

< 1.4.12

range

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.