Security Bulletin
Summary
Packer up to 1.15.4 is vulnerable to an issue in the third-party plugin installer that may allow unintended file system modification and could lead to code execution. A user who installs a plugin from a malicious or compromised source may be affected. This vulnerability (CVE-2026-19589) is fixed in Packer 1.16.0.
Vulnerability Details
CVEID: CVE-2026-19589
DESCRIPTION: Packer did not sufficiently constrain where files could be written during plugin archive extraction. A malicious or compromised plugin release could supply a crafted archive that, when extracted, places files outside the intended plugin directory. This issue may lead to code execution on the machine running the install. This issue affects users who install third-party plugins from a malicious or compromised source using packer init or packer plugins install.
CWE: CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory (Path Traversal)
CVSS Source: HashiCorp Inc.
CVSS Base score: 7.1
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:N)
Affected Products and Versions
| Affected Product(s) | Version(s) |
| Packer Community Edition | affected from 1.7.0 up to 1.16.0 |
| Packer Enterprise | N/A |
Remediation/Fixes
Customers should evaluate the risk associated with this issue and consider upgrading to Packer 1.16.0.
Get Notified about Future Security Bulletins
References
Acknowledgement
This issue was reported to HashiCorp by George Chen.
Change History
17 Aug 2026: Initial Publication
*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.
Disclaimer
According to the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is an "industry open standard designed to convey vulnerability severity and help to determine urgency and priority of response." IBM PROVIDES THE CVSS SCORES ""AS IS"" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. CUSTOMERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF ANY ACTUAL OR POTENTIAL SECURITY VULNERABILITY. In addition to other efforts to address potential vulnerabilities, IBM periodically updates the record of components contained in our product offerings. As part of that effort, if IBM identifies previously unidentified packages in a product/service inventory, we address relevant vulnerabilities regardless of CVE date. Inclusion of an older CVEID does not demonstrate that the referenced product has been used by IBM since that date, nor that IBM was aware of a vulnerability as of that date. We are making clients aware of relevant vulnerabilities as we become aware of them. "Affected Products and Versions" referenced in IBM Security Bulletins are intended to be only products and versions that are supported by IBM and have not passed their end-of-support or warranty date. Thus, failure to reference unsupported or extended-support products and versions in this Security Bulletin does not constitute a determination by IBM that they are unaffected by the vulnerability. Reference to one or more unsupported versions in this Security Bulletin shall not create an obligation for IBM to provide fixes for any unsupported or extended-support products or versions.
Document Location
Worldwide
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Document Information
Modified date:
17 August 2026
Initial Publish date:
17 August 2026
UID
ibm17284067