CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2022-26688 — An issue in the handling of symlinks was addressed with improved validation
An issue in the handling of symlinks was addressed with improved validation. This issue is fixed in Security Update 2022-003 Catalina, macOS Monterey 12.3, macOS Big Sur 11.6.5. A malicious app with root privileges may be able to modify the contents of system files.
- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 4.9 (2.0)
- Published
- 2022-05-26
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- apple/platform
- Weaknesses
- CWE-59
Affected products
- apple / mac_os_x
- apple / mac_os_x / 10.15.7
Showing 2 representative product identities from 17 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.
Matched remediation archetype
Path traversal, unsafe upload, and file handling
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Trace untrusted filenames, archive entries, URLs, and path segments into read, write, include, extraction, and upload operations.
- Identify filesystem roots, mount permissions, symbolic-link behavior, archive handling, and whether uploaded content is web-accessible or executable.
- Review canonicalization and containment checks across supported operating systems and storage backends.
Remediate safely
- Generate server-side storage identifiers and resolve paths beneath a fixed root using filesystem-aware containment checks.
- Reject absolute, parent-relative, alternate-separator, device, link, and archive entries that escape the intended root.
- Store uploads outside executable or served paths, validate type and size, and use private atomic temporary files.
Authoritative sources
Complete CVE record and remediation plan
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