CVE-2026-28406 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.2) Path Traversal vulnerability in github.com/chainguard-dev/kaniko. A fix is available for github.com/chainguard-dev/kaniko — see the affected versions and patch details below.
kaniko has tar archive path traversal in build context extraction allows writing files outside destination directory
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-28406.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
github.com/chainguard-dev/kanikoReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
kaniko is a tool to build container images from a Dockerfile, inside a container or Kubernetes cluster. Starting in version 1.25.4 and prior to version 1.25.10, kaniko unpacks build context archives using filepath.Join(dest, cleanedName) without enforcing that the final path stays within dest. A tar entry like ../outside.txt escapes the extraction root and writes files outside the destination directory. In environments with registry authentication, this can be chained with docker credential helpers to achieve code execution within the executor process. Version 1.25.10 uses securejoin for path resolution in tar extraction.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/chainguard-dev/kaniko | ≥ 1.25.4&&< 1.25.10 | 1.25.10go get github.com/chainguard-dev/kaniko@v1.25.10 |
Affected Products
kanikochainguardDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/chainguard-dev/kaniko, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/chainguard-dev/kaniko to 1.25.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-28406 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-28406 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-28406 in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.