# CVE-2023-52138: Path traversal via crafted cpio archives in Engrampa archivers

> Attackers can achieve remote code execution by tricking users into extracting malicious CPIO archives that exploit symlink handling flaws in Engrampa.

- **Severity:** High 8.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 5 Feb 2024
- **Updated:** 17 Jun 2025
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52138, DLA-3741-1, DSA-5625-1, GHSA-c98h-v39w-3r7v, OESA-2024-1588, OESA-2024-1589, OESA-2026-3764, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52138, USN-8640-1, openSUSE-SU-2024:13747-1

## What is CVE-2023-52138?

CVE-2023-52138 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in mate-desktop engrampa, published on 5 Feb 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Engrampa is an archive manager for the MATE environment. Engrampa is found to be vulnerable to a Path Traversal vulnerability that can be leveraged to achieve full Remote Command Execution (RCE) on the target. While handling CPIO archives, the Engrampa Archive manager follows symlink, cpio by default will follow stored symlinks while extracting and the Archiver will not check the symlink location, which leads to arbitrary file writes to unintended locations. When the victim extracts the archive, the attacker can craft a malicious cpio or ISO archive to achieve RCE on the target system. This vulnerability was fixed in commit 63d5dfa.

Weakness: CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access), CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory), CWE-25 (Path Traversal: '/../filedir')

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52138?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Mate-Desktop Engrampa.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52138?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52138 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2023-52138 exists.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-52138 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52138 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in mate-desktop engrampa, published on 5 Feb 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2023-52138 exists.

Affected product: mate-desktop engrampa. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52138/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52138/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52138
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52138
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52138

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52138/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.