{"id":29333,"date":"2025-04-22T18:45:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T18:45:46","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-05-19T06:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T06:52:12","slug":"cve-2025-3445-path-traversal-zip-slip-vulnerability-in-mholt-archiver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3445-path-traversal-zip-slip-vulnerability-in-mholt-archiver\/","title":{"rendered":"CVE-2025-3445: Path Traversal “Zip Slip” Vulnerability in mholt\/archiver<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n

The cybersecurity landscape is continuously evolving, and new vulnerabilities can emerge at any time. One such vulnerability is the CVE-2025-3445, a Path Traversal “Zip Slip” vulnerability identified in mholt\/archiver in Go. This vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it poses potential risks of system compromise or data<\/a> leakage. It affects any application utilizing the mholt\/archiver library and can lead to severe consequences, such as privilege escalation<\/a> and code execution, if exploited successfully.<\/p>\n

Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

CVE ID: CVE-2025-3445
\nSeverity: High – CVSS Score 8.1
\nAttack Vector: Network
\nPrivileges Required: None
\nUser Interaction: Required
\nImpact: Potential system compromise or data leakage<\/a><\/p>\n

Affected Products<\/strong><\/p>\n

Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n

mholt\/archiver | All versions<\/p>\n

How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n

The exploit works by using a specially crafted ZIP file that contains path traversal<\/a> symbolic links (symlinks). When an application using the vulnerable mholt\/archiver library unarchives the ZIP file<\/a> using the archiver.Unarchive function, the malicious ZIP file can be extracted in a way that overwrites sensitive files on the system<\/a>. The overwritten files are written with the same privileges as the application executing the vulnerable<\/a> function. This could potentially lead to privilege escalation, code execution<\/a>, and other serious threats to the system.<\/p>\n

Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here’s a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited<\/a>. This is an example of a crafted ZIP file<\/a> that contains a symlink to a sensitive system file:<\/p>\n

package main\nimport (\n\"github.com\/mholt\/archiver\"\n)\nfunc main() {\nzipFile := \"malicious.zip\"  \/\/ A ZIP file containing a symlink to \/etc\/passwd\noutputDir := \"\/tmp\"\n\/\/ Unarchive the ZIP file\nerr := archiver.Unarchive(zipFile, outputDir)\nif err != nil {\nlog.Fatal(err)\n}\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n
In this example, if the ‘malicious.zip’ file contains a symlink to a sensitive file (like \/etc\/passwd), it could overwrite that file when unarchived, potentially leading<\/a> to privilege escalation.<\/p>\n
Mitigation and Remediation<\/strong><\/p>\n
The recommended solution to this vulnerability<\/a> is to apply the vendor patch when it becomes available. In the meantime, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can be used as temporary mitigation. It’s also advisable to replace the deprecated mholt\/archiver project with its successor, mholt\/archives, which has removed the Unarchive() functionality in its initial release (v0.1.0).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Overview The cybersecurity landscape is continuously evolving, and new vulnerabilities can emerge at any time. One such vulnerability is the CVE-2025-3445, a Path Traversal “Zip Slip” vulnerability identified in mholt\/archiver in Go. This vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it poses potential risks of system compromise or data leakage. It affects any application utilizing the mholt\/archiver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[79],"product":[],"attack_vector":[85,76],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-29333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-github","attack_vector-directory-traversal","attack_vector-privilege-escalation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t