CVE-2020-4053: Path Traversal in Helm Plugin Archive

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2020-06-16 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-22

Description

In Helm greater than or equal to 3.0.0 and less than 3.2.4, a path traversal attack is possible when installing Helm plugins from a tar archive over HTTP. It is possible for a malicious plugin author to inject a relative path into a plugin archive, and copy a file outside of the intended directory. This has been fixed in 3.2.4.

Affected products

helm: from 3.0.0 before 3.2.4 — fixed in 3.2.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: helm 3.2.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://github.com/helm/helm/commit/0ad800ef43d3b826f31a5ad8dfbb4fe05d143688
https://github.com/helm/helm/releases/tag/v3.2.4
https://github.com/helm/helm/security/advisories/GHSA-qq3j-xp49-j73f
https://github.com/helm/helm/commit/0ad800ef43d3b826f31a5ad8dfbb4fe05d143688
https://github.com/helm/helm/releases/tag/v3.2.4
https://github.com/helm/helm/security/advisories/GHSA-qq3j-xp49-j73f

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