PEAR Archive_Tar Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability (CVE-2020-28949)
Severity: high · Patch status: patched · Since 2022-08-25 · CVE-2020-28949
PEAR ArchiveTar allows an unserialization attack because phar: is blocked but PHAR: is not blocked. PEAR stands for PHP Extension and Application Repository and it is an open-source framework and distribution system for reusable PHP components with known usage in third-party products such as Drupal Core and Red Hat Linux. CISA added CVE-2020-28949 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on Aug 25, 2022, which means attackers are exploiting it in the wild.
What to do
- Apply updates per vendor instructions.
- US federal agencies must remediate by Sep 15, 2022 (BOD 22-01); treat that as the outer limit.
Sources
All live incidents on Threat Watch
