Amazon Linux 2023 : perl-Archive-Tar, perl-Archive-Tar-tests (ALAS2023-2026-1805)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 319782

Synopsis

The remote Amazon Linux 2023 host is missing a security update.

Description

It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ALAS2023-2026-1805 advisory.

Archive::Tar versions before 3.08 for Perl extract symlinks with attacker controlled targets outside the extraction directory. _make_special_file() passes the tar header's linkname to symlink() without validating it against absolute paths or .. segments. The secure-extract mode check that guards regular file extraction does not cover the symlink target. A subsequent open through the extracted name reads or writes the attacker chosen path.

NOTE: https://lists.security.metacpan.org/cve-announce/msg/40396459/ (CVE-2026-42496)

Archive::Tar versions before 3.08 for Perl extract hardlinks to attacker controlled paths outside the extraction directory. _make_special_file() passes the tar header's linkname to link() without validating it against absolute paths or .. segments, creating a hardlink that shares the victim file's inode. A subsequent write through the extracted name modifies the victim file, and the post-extraction chmod, chown, and utime block in _extract_file() (guarded only against symlinks via -l) applies the tar header's mode, owner, and timestamps to the shared inode during extraction alone.

NOTE: https://lists.security.metacpan.org/cve-announce/msg/40396457/ (CVE-2026-42497)

Archive::Tar versions before 3.10 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via attacker controlled entry size field in tar header. _read_tar() reads each entry's payload with $handle->read($$data, $block), where $block is derived from the entry's 12-byte size field in the tar header with no upper bound on that value.
A crafted header declaring a multi-gigabyte size causes Perl to allocate a scalar of that size.

NOTE: https://lists.security.metacpan.org/cve-announce/msg/40396448/ (CVE-2026-9538)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the tested product security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Run 'dnf update perl-Archive-Tar --releasever 2023.12.20260608' or or 'dnf update --advisory ALAS2023-2026-1805 --releasever 2023.12.20260608' to update your system.

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 319782

File Name: al2023_ALAS2023-2026-1805.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Amazon Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 6/8/2026

Updated: 6/8/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.0

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 9.4

Temporal Score: 7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-42496

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.1

Temporal Score: 7.9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:perl-archive-tar-tests, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:perl-archive-tar, cpe:/o:amazon:linux:2023

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/AmazonLinux/release, Host/AmazonLinux/rpm-list

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 6/8/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 5/26/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-42496, CVE-2026-42497, CVE-2026-9538

Detections

Analytics