CVE-2024-12718
MediumCVSS 5.3Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk47th percentile - higher than 47% of all known CVEs
Summary
A vulnerability in Python's tarfile module allows modifying file metadata or permissions outside the extraction directory when using filters 'data' or 'tar'. Affects Python 3.12+.
Risk Assessment
An attacker could craft a malicious archive that alters system file permissions or metadata, potentially leading to privilege escalation or system instability.
Recommendation
Update Python to the latest version and use safe extraction filters (e.g., 'data' with caution) or avoid extracting untrusted archives.
Original NVD description (English source)
Allows modifying some file metadata (e.g. last modified) with filter="data" or file permissions (chmod) with filter="tar" of files outside the extraction directory. You are affected by this vulnerability if using the tarfile module to extract untrusted tar archives using TarFile.extractall() or TarFile.extract() using the filter= parameter with a value of "data" or "tar". See the tarfile extraction filters documentation https://docs.python.org/3/library/tarfile.html#tarfile-extraction-filter for more information. Only Python versions 3.12 or later are affected by these vulnerabilities, earlier versions don't include the extraction filter feature. Note that for Python 3.14 or later the default value of filter= changed from "no filtering" to `"data", so if you are relying on this new default behavior then your usage is also affected. Note that none of these vulnerabilities significantly affect the installation of source distributions which are tar archives as source distributions already allow arbitrary code execution during the build process. However when evaluating source distributions it's important to avoid installing source distributions with suspicious links.