CVE-2025-3445
Description
A Path Traversal "Zip Slip" vulnerability has been identified in mholt/archiver in Go. This vulnerability allows using a crafted ZIP file containing path traversal symlinks to create or overwrite files with the user's privileges or application utilizing the library.
When using the archiver.Unarchive functionality with ZIP files, like this: archiver.Unarchive(zipFile, outputDir), A crafted ZIP file can be extracted in such a way that it writes files to the affected system with the same privileges as the application executing this vulnerable functionality. Consequently, sensitive files may be overwritten, potentially leading to privilege escalation, code execution, and other severe outcomes in some cases.
It's worth noting that a similar vulnerability was found in TAR files (CVE-2024-0406). Although a fix was implemented, it hasn't been officially released, and the affected project has since been deprecated. The successor to mholt/archiver is a new project called mholt/archives, and its initial release (v0.1.0) removes the Unarchive() functionality.
Affected packages
Versions sourced from the GitHub Security Advisory.
| Package | Affected versions | Patched versions |
|---|---|---|
github.com/mholt/archiverGo | <= 3.5.1 | — |
github.com/mholt/archiver/v3Go | <= 3.5.1 | — |
Patches
1fea250ac6eacClarify opinion about zip-slip and give recommendation
1 file changed · +1 −0
README.md+1 −0 modified@@ -134,6 +134,7 @@ import "github.com/mholt/archiver" The archiver package allows you to easily create and open archives, walk their contents, extract specific files, compress and decompress files, and even stream archives in and out using pure io.Reader and io.Writer interfaces, without ever needing to touch the disk. See [package godoc documentation](https://godoc.org/github.com/mholt/archiver) to learn how to do this -- it's really slick! +**Security note: This package does NOT attempt to mitigate zip-slip attacks.** It is [extremely difficult](https://github.com/rubyzip/rubyzip/pull/376) [to do properly](https://github.com/mholt/archiver/pull/65#issuecomment-395988244) and [seemingly impossible to mitigate effectively across platforms](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/20126). [Attempted fixes have broken processing of legitimate files in production](https://github.com/mholt/archiver/pull/70#issuecomment-423267320), rendering the program unusable. Our recommendation instead is to inspect the contents of an untrusted archive before extracting it (this package provides `Walkers`) and decide if you want to proceed with extraction. ## Project Values
Vulnerability mechanics
Generated by null/stub on May 9, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.
References
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