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Vulnerability record · CVE-2023-38346 · published 22 September 2023

CVE-2023-38346: Windriver vxworks path traversal vulnerability

Windriver · Vxworks

An issue was discovered in Wind River VxWorks 6.9 and 7. The function ``tarExtract`` implements TAR file extraction and thereby also processes files within an archive that have relative or absolute file paths. A developer using the "tarExtract" function may expect that the function will strip leading slashes from absolute paths or stop processing when encountering relative paths that are outside of the extraction path, unless otherwise forced. This could lead to unexpected and undocumented behavior, which in general could result in a directory traversal, and associated unexpected behavior.

8.8 CVSS 3.1 High EPSS 1.5% · top 25.9% CWE-22 · Path traversal
8.8CVSS 3.1 base score
1.5%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
6References, 2 tagged exploit
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

An issue was discovered in Wind River VxWorks 6.9 and 7. The function ``tarExtract`` implements TAR file extraction and thereby also processes files within an archive that have relative or absolute file paths. A developer using the "tarExtract" function may expect that the function will strip leading slashes from absolute paths or stop processing when encountering relative paths that are outside of the extraction path, unless otherwise forced. This could lead to unexpected and undocumented behavior, which in general could result in a directory traversal, and associated unexpected behavior.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://support2.windriver.com/index.php?page=cve&on=view&id=CVE-2023-38346 PatchVendor Advisory
https://support2.windriver.com/index.php?page=security-notices Vendor Advisory
https://www.pentagrid.ch/en/blog/wind-river-vxworks-tarextract-directory-traversal-vulnerability/ ExploitTechnical DescriptionThird Party Advisory
https://support2.windriver.com/index.php?page=cve&on=view&id=CVE-2023-38346 PatchVendor Advisory
https://support2.windriver.com/index.php?page=security-notices Vendor Advisory
https://www.pentagrid.ch/en/blog/wind-river-vxworks-tarextract-directory-traversal-vulnerability/ ExploitTechnical DescriptionThird Party Advisory

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

10.0CVE-2013-0714Windriver vxworks improper input validation vulnerabilityIPSSH (aka the SSH server) in Wind River VxWorks 6.5 through 6.9 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (daem…EPSS 6.4%9.8CVE-2020-35198Windriver vxworks integer overflow vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Wind River VxWorks 7. The memory allocator has a possible integer overflow in calculating a memory block's size to be allo…EPSS 2.5%9.8CVE-2021-29998Windriver vxworks out-of-bounds write vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Wind River VxWorks before 6.5. There is a possible heap overflow in dhcp client.EPSS 2.4%9.8CVE-2021-29999Windriver vxworks out-of-bounds write vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Wind River VxWorks through 6.8. There is a possible stack overflow in dhcp server.EPSS 1.8%9.8CVE-2016-20009Windriver vxworks out-of-bounds write vulnerabilityA DNS client stack-based buffer overflow in ipdnsc_decode_name() affects Wind River VxWorks 6.5 through 7. NOTE: This vulnerability only affects prod…EPSS 1.9%9.8CVE-2019-12262Windriver vxworks vulnerabilityWind River VxWorks 6.6, 6.7, 6.8, 6.9 and 7 has Incorrect Access Control in the RARP client component. IPNET security vulnerability: Handling of unso…EPSS 4.1%9.8CVE-2019-12260Windriver vxworks classic buffer overflow vulnerabilityWind River VxWorks 6.9 and vx7 has a Buffer Overflow in the TCP component (issue 2 of 4). This is an IPNET security vulnerability: TCP Urgent Pointer…EPSS 23%9.8CVE-2019-12261Windriver vxworks classic buffer overflow vulnerabilityWind River VxWorks 6.7 though 6.9 and vx7 has a Buffer Overflow in the TCP component (issue 3 of 4). This is an IPNET security vulnerability: TCP Urg…EPSS 9.0%

Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2023-38346), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-10-06). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.