CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-19444

MediumCVSS 6.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.20%

9th percentile - higher than 9% of all known CVEs

Summary

A path traversal vulnerability was discovered in the Kubernetes kubectl client's kubectl cp command on Windows. When copying files from a container, kubectl runs tar inside the container, transfers the archive, and unpacks it locally; a malicious tar can execute arbitrary code and write files to arbitrary paths on the user's machine.

Risk Assessment

An attacker controlling container contents can write files to arbitrary locations on the user's machine with the user's permissions, potentially leading to code execution or file overwriting. This issue only affects kubectl clients running on Windows.

Recommendation

Update kubectl to a version containing the fix or avoid using kubectl cp with untrusted containers on Windows. Consider limiting the privileges of the user running kubectl cp.

Related vulnerabilities

Original NVD description (English source)

A path traversal vulnerability was discovered in the Kubernetes kubectl client's kubectl cp command on Windows. When copying files from a container, kubectl runs tar inside the container to build a tar archive, transfers it over the network, and unpacks it on the local machine. If the tar binary in the container is malicious, it can execute arbitrary code and emit unexpected output, allowing an attacker who controls container contents to write files to arbitrary paths on the user's local machine when kubectl cp is invoked, limited only by the system permissions of the local user. This issue only affects kubectl clients running on Windows.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS