zed-industries zed up to 0.224.3 unpack symlink

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in zed-industries zed up to 0.224.3 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function async_tar::Archive::unpack. This manipulation causes symlink. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2026-27976. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in zed-industries zed up to 0.224.3. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function async_tar::Archive::unpack. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a symlink vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-61. The product, when opening a file or directory, does not sufficiently account for when the file is a symbolic link that resolves to a target outside of the intended control sphere. This could allow an attacker to cause the product to operate on unauthorized files. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Zed, a code editor, has an extension installer allows tar/gzip downloads. Prior to version 0.224.4, the tar extractor (`async_tar::Archive::unpack`) creates symlinks from the archive without validation, and the path guard (`writeable_path_from_extension`) only performs lexical prefix checks without resolving symlinks. An attacker can ship a tar that first creates a symlink inside the extension workdir pointing outside (e.g., `escape -> /`), then writes files through the symlink, causing writes to arbitrary host paths. This escapes the extension sandbox and enables code execution. Version 0.224.4 patches the issue.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-27976 since 02/25/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 300838 (Zed < 0.224.4 Multiple Path Traversal Vulnerabilities), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 0.224.4 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (300838) and EUVD (EUVD-2026-8778). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• zed-industries

Name

• zed

Version

• 0.224.0
• 0.224.1
• 0.224.2
• 0.224.3

Website

• Product: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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