7.5
HIGH CVSS 3.1
CVE-2016-6321
GNU tar Directory Traversal Vulnerability
Description

Directory traversal vulnerability in the safer_name_suffix function in GNU tar 1.14 through 1.29 might allow remote attackers to bypass an intended protection mechanism and write to arbitrary files via vectors related to improper sanitization of the file_name parameter, aka POINTYFEATHER.

INFO

Published Date :

Dec. 9, 2016, 10:59 p.m.

Last Modified :

Aug. 6, 2025, 10:15 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !

Source :

[email protected]
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2016-6321 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

ID Vendor Product Action
1 Gnu tar
: Total Affected Vendor : 1 | Products : 1
CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 2.0 MEDIUM [email protected]
CVSS 3.0 HIGH [email protected]
CVSS 3.1 HIGH 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
Solution
Follow the instructions below to mitigate the CVE-2016-6321 vulnerability.
There is no known solution at this time.
Public PoC/Exploit Available at Github

CVE-2016-6321 has a 2 public PoC/Exploit available at Github. Go to the Public Exploits tab to see the list.

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to CVE-2016-6321.

URL Resource
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/commit/?id=7340f67b9860ea0531c1450e5aa261c50f67165d Issue Tracking Patch
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-tar/2016-10/msg00016.html Mailing List Vendor Advisory
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/139370/GNU-tar-1.29-Extract-Pathname-Bypass.html Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/102 Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/96 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3702
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93937 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3132-1
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201611-19
https://sintonen.fi/advisories/tar-extract-pathname-bypass.proper.txt Third Party Advisory
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/commit/?id=7340f67b9860ea0531c1450e5aa261c50f67165d Issue Tracking Patch
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-tar/2016-10/msg00016.html Mailing List Vendor Advisory
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/139370/GNU-tar-1.29-Extract-Pathname-Bypass.html Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/102 Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/96 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3702
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93937 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3132-1
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201611-19
https://sintonen.fi/advisories/tar-extract-pathname-bypass.proper.txt Third Party Advisory
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2016-6321 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2016-6321 weaknesses.

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Profile Photo
vincent-deng/veracode-container-security-finding-parser

Map Vulnerabilities into Different Layers of the Container Image

Python

Updated: 2 years, 7 months ago
1 stars 1 fork 1 watcher
Born at : Oct. 5, 2022, 12:07 p.m. This repo has been linked 1277 different CVEs too.
Profile Photo
tomwillfixit/alpine-cvecheck

Code used to CVE check Alpine based images

Shell

Updated: 4 months, 3 weeks ago
11 stars 0 fork 0 watcher
Born at : May 6, 2017, 9:13 p.m. This repo has been linked 60 different CVEs too.

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2016-6321 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

Results are limited to the first 20 news articles due to potential performance issues.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2016-6321 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • CVE Modified by 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    Aug. 06, 2025

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
    Added CWE CWE-22
  • CVE Modified by af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108

    Nov. 21, 2024

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/commit/?id=7340f67b9860ea0531c1450e5aa261c50f67165d
    Added Reference http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-tar/2016-10/msg00016.html
    Added Reference http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/139370/GNU-tar-1.29-Extract-Pathname-Bypass.html
    Added Reference http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/102
    Added Reference http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/96
    Added Reference http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3702
    Added Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93937
    Added Reference http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3132-1
    Added Reference https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
    Added Reference https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
    Added Reference https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201611-19
    Added Reference https://sintonen.fi/advisories/tar-extract-pathname-bypass.proper.txt
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    May. 14, 2024

    Action Type Old Value New Value
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Feb. 13, 2023

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Removed Reference https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b@%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E [No Types Assigned]
    Removed Reference https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4@%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E [No Types Assigned]
    Added Reference https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E [No Types Assigned]
    Added Reference https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Jun. 29, 2021

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b@%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Jun. 28, 2021

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4@%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Jul. 01, 2017

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201611-19 [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Jan. 07, 2017

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3132-1 [No Types Assigned]
    Added Reference http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3702 [No Types Assigned]
  • Initial Analysis by [email protected]

    Dec. 14, 2016

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added CPE Configuration Configuration 1 OR *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.24:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.25:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.26:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.27:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.27.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.28:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.29:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.14:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.15:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.15.90:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.15.91:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.16:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.16.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.17:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.18:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.19:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.20:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.21:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.22:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:gnu:tar:1.23:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    Added CVSS V2 (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N)
    Added CVSS V3 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
    Changed Reference Type http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/139370/GNU-tar-1.29-Extract-Pathname-Bypass.html No Types Assigned http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/139370/GNU-tar-1.29-Extract-Pathname-Bypass.html Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry, Exploit
    Changed Reference Type https://sintonen.fi/advisories/tar-extract-pathname-bypass.proper.txt No Types Assigned https://sintonen.fi/advisories/tar-extract-pathname-bypass.proper.txt Third Party Advisory
    Changed Reference Type http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93937 No Types Assigned http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93937 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
    Changed Reference Type http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/96 No Types Assigned http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/96 Third Party Advisory, Mailing List
    Changed Reference Type http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-tar/2016-10/msg00016.html No Types Assigned http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-tar/2016-10/msg00016.html Mailing List, Vendor Advisory
    Changed Reference Type http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/commit/?id=7340f67b9860ea0531c1450e5aa261c50f67165d No Types Assigned http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/commit/?id=7340f67b9860ea0531c1450e5aa261c50f67165d Issue Tracking, Patch
    Changed Reference Type http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/102 No Types Assigned http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/102 Third Party Advisory, Mailing List, Patch
    Added CWE CWE-22
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.
Vulnerability Scoring Details
Base CVSS Score: 7.5
Attack Vector
Attack Complexity
Privileges Required
User Interaction
Scope
Confidentiality Impact
Integrity Impact
Availability Impact
Base CVSS Score: 7.5
Attack Vector
Attack Complexity
Privileges Required
User Interaction
Scope
Confidentiality Impact
Integrity Impact
Availability Impact
Base CVSS Score: 5
Access Vector
Access Complexity
Authentication
Confidentiality Impact
Integrity Impact
Availability Impact
Exploit Prediction

EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days.

12.72 }} -3.63%

score

0.93712

percentile