aqua: Archive extraction in aqua follows attacker-planted symlinks, allowing writes outside the install directory
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · High · Low
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub.
Summary
aqua is a declarative command-line version manager written in Go. Prior to 2.60.1, pkg/unarchive/archives.go in the handler.HandleFile method calls os.Symlink with archives.FileInfo.LinkTarget without verifying that the target remains under the extraction destination. A later regular-file entry at the same archive path is opened with OpenFile using O_CREATE and O_WRONLY, which follows the attacker-planted symlink. A malicious or compromised package archive can therefore write attacker-controlled bytes outside aqua's extraction directory with the privileges of the user running aqua, potentially overwriting shell startup files, tool configuration, or writable executable paths. This issue is fixed in version 2.60.1.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aquaproj | aqua | before 2.60.1 | 2.60.1 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/aquaproj/aqua/v2 (Go) | before 2.60.1 | 2.60.1 | Patch available | GHSA-mf5c-hw34-4hpp |
- aqua Vendoraquaproj Affected before 2.60.1 Fixed in 2.60.1 Patch available CNA
- github.com/aquaproj/aqua/v2 (Go) Vendor— Affected before 2.60.1 Fixed in 2.60.1 Patch available GHSA-mf5c-hw34-4hpp
Remediation
- Fix · CNA aqua (aquaproj) Fixed in 2.60.1
- Fix · GHSA-mf5c-hw34-4hpp github.com/aquaproj/aqua/v2 (Go) Fixed in 2.60.1 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-55569
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-mf5c-hw34-4hpp
References
Sources
- CVE-2026-55569 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-55569 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-mf5c-hw34-4hpp · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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