CVE-2026-20613 Container and Containerization archive extraction does not guard against escapes from extraction base directory.

What is CVE-2026-20613?

CVE-2026-20613 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in Apple Container, published on 22 Jan 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

The ArchiveReader.extractContents() function used by cctl image load and container image load performs no pathname validation before extracting an archive member. This means that a carelessly or maliciously constructed archive can extract a file into any user-writable location on the system using relative pathnames. This issue is addressed in container 0.8.0 and containerization 0.21.0.

Weakness: CWE-22

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20613?

4 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/apple/container and github.com/apple/containerization. It affects 2 products.

Products include Apple Container, Apple Containerization.

How do I fix CVE-2026-20613?

Upgrade github.com/apple/container to 0.8.0 or later.

Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.

Is CVE-2026-20613 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-20613 exists.

Other vulnerabilities in Apple Container

• CVE-2026-64773 Denial of service in container High 7.5
• CVE-2026-28909 Users who connect to malicious registries with hostnames matching the bypass patterns will have their registry credentials exposed in plaintext. Medium 6.5
• CVE-2026-64777 Path traversal in container Medium 4.3

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-cq3j-qj2h-6rv3.