Cargo incorrectly handled symlinks inside of crate tarballs downloaded from third-party registries, allowing a malicious crate to override the source code of another c…

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

• Repository · github.com

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

1. May 25, 2026 · NIST NVD

   Detected

   Cargo incorrectly handled symlinks inside of crate tarballs downloaded from third-party registries, allowing a malicious crate to override the source code of another crate from the same registry. The severity of the vulnerability is **medium** for users of third-party registries. Users of crates.io are **not affected**, as crates.io forbids uploading crates containing any symlink.

2. Jul 23, 2026 · NIST NVD

   Updated

   Cargo incorrectly handled symlinks inside of crate tarballs downloaded from third-party registries, allowing a malicious crate to override the source code of another crate from the same registry. The severity of the vulnerability is **medium** for users of third-party registries. Users of crates.io are **not affected**, as crates.io forbids uploading crates containing any symlink.

Affected

• cpe rust-lang/cargoversion unspecified

Sources

• CVE.orgVulnerability recordCVE-2026-5223

  Official CVE identifier

  cve.org
• NIST NVDVulnerability recordCVE-2026-5223

  Cargo incorrectly handled symlinks inside of crate tarballs downloaded from third-party registries, allowing a malicious crate to override the source code of another crate from the same registry. The severity of the vulnerability is **medium** for users of third-party registries.

  nvd.nist.gov

References

• Mitigation · blog.rust-lang.org
• Issue Tracking · github.com
• Mailing List · groups.google.com