What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2019-11251: kubectl cp allows symlink directory traversal

• Severity: medium (CVSS 5.7 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 2.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2020-02-03 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-61

Description

The Kubernetes kubectl cp command in versions 1.1-1.12, and versions prior to 1.13.11, 1.14.7, and 1.15.4 allows a combination of two symlinks provided by tar output of a malicious container to place a file outside of the destination directory specified in the kubectl cp invocation. This could be used to allow an attacker to place a nefarious file using a symlink, outside of the destination tree.

Affected products

• Kubernetes: from 1.13.0 before 1.13.11; from 1.14.0 before 1.14.7; from 1.15.0 before 1.15.4; 1.1-1.12 — fixed in 1.13.11, 1.14.7, 1.15.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Kubernetes 1.13.11, 1.14.7, 1.15.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/87773
• https://groups.google.com/d/msg/kubernetes-announce/YYtEFdFimZ4/nZnOezZuBgAJ
• https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/87773
• https://groups.google.com/d/msg/kubernetes-announce/YYtEFdFimZ4/nZnOezZuBgAJ

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