sleuthkit The Sleuth Kit up to 4.14.0 tsk_recover path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in sleuthkit The Sleuth Kit up to 4.14.0. This affects the function tsk_recover. Such manipulation leads to path traversal. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2026-40024. The attack must be carried out locally. There is no available exploit. It is advisable to implement a patch to correct this issue.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in sleuthkit The Sleuth Kit up to 4.14.0 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function tsk_recover. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-22. The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

The Sleuth Kit through 4.14.0 contains a path traversal vulnerability in tsk_recover that allows an attacker to write files to arbitrary locations outside the intended recovery directory via crafted filenames or directory paths with path traversal sequences in a filesystem image. An attacker can craft a malicious filesystem image with embedded /../ sequences in filenames that, when processed by tsk_recover, writes files outside the output directory, potentially achieving code execution by overwriting shell configuration or cron entries.

The weakness was presented with Mobasi Security Team as a3f96b3bc36a8bb1a00c297f77110d4a6e7dd31b. The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-40024 since 04/08/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack needs to be approached locally. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1006.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 305794 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-40024), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Applying the patch a3f96b3bc36a8bb1a00c297f77110d4a6e7dd31b is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (305794). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• sleuthkit

Name

• The Sleuth Kit

Version

• 4.0
• 4.1
• 4.2
• 4.3
• 4.4
• 4.5
• 4.6
• 4.7
• 4.8
• 4.9
• 4.10
• 4.11
• 4.12
• 4.13
• 4.14.0

License

• open-source

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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