CVE-2026-35363

uutils coreutils rm Safeguard Bypass via Improper Path Normalization

Published Apr 22, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 5.6 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
A vulnerability in the rm utility of uutils coreutils allows the bypass of safeguard mechanisms intended to protect the current directory. While the utility correctly refuses to delete . or .., it fails to recognize equivalent paths with trailing slashes, such as ./ or .///. An accidental or malicious execution of rm -rf ./ results in the silent recursive deletion of all contents within the current directory. The command further obscures the data loss by reporting a misleading 'Invalid input' error, which may cause users to miss the critical window for data recovery.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-vchc-9ggh-3236 uutils coreutils has a Path Traversal issue
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-89p7-7cq3-hhr2 rm: 'rm -rf ./' (and ./// variants) silently deletes current directory contents, bypassing dot protection
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-9041-1 uutils coreutils vulnerabilities
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Uutils
Uutils coreutils
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:uutils:coreutils:-:*:*:*:*:rust:*:*
Vendors & Products Uutils
Uutils coreutils
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A vulnerability in the rm utility of uutils coreutils allows the bypass of safeguard mechanisms intended to protect the current directory. While the utility correctly refuses to delete . or .., it fails to recognize equivalent paths with trailing slashes, such as ./ or .///. An accidental or malicious execution of rm -rf ./ results in the silent recursive deletion of all contents within the current directory. The command further obscures the data loss by reporting a misleading 'Invalid input' error, which may cause users to miss the critical window for data recovery.
Title uutils coreutils rm Safeguard Bypass via Improper Path Normalization
Weaknesses CWE-22
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.6, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
canonical
Published
Updated
Apr 22, 2026, 5:24 PM
Reserved
Apr 2, 2026, 12:58 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Apr 22, 2026, 5:16 PM
Modified
Oct 26, 2026, 9:10 PM