aqua: Archive extraction in aqua follows attacker-planted symlinks, allowing writes outside the install directory (CVE-2026-55569) | HOL Guard CVE

Medium · CVSS 6.6CVE-2026-55569GHSA-MF5C-HW34-4HPP

aqua: Archive extraction in aqua follows attacker-planted symlinks, allowing writes outside the install directory

Answer in brief

CVE-2026-55569 records a Medium severity (CVSS 6.6) vulnerability in aqua: Archive extraction in aqua follows attacker-planted symlinks, allowing writes outside the install directory. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps aquaproj/aqua (generic), github.com/aquaproj/aqua/v2 (go). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Analysis pending evidence review

HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.

Published Aug 28, 2026Updated Aug 28, 2026Source checked Aug 28, 2026First seen by HOL Aug 28, 2026Material review Aug 28, 2026

Upstream Advisory

Key facts

Risk: Medium · CVSS 6.6
Exploitation: Not marked as known exploited
Affected software: 2 mapped packages or products
Fix availability: Available

Why this deserves its current priority

CVSS is 6.6. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.

Analysis status

Analysis pending evidence review

Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.

Affected scope and exposure questions

The current feed maps aquaproj/aqua (generic), github.com/aquaproj/aqua/v2 (go). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Mapped affected packages and fixed versions
Package	Affected range	Fixed version
aquaproj/aquageneric	< 2.60.1	Not reported
github.com/aquaproj/aqua/v2go	<2.60.1	2.60.1

Recommended response

Check inventory. Check lockfiles and deployed manifests for aquaproj/aqua, github.com/aquaproj/aqua/v2.
Review the reported fix. Update github.com/aquaproj/aqua/v2 to 2.60.1 if you use the affected versions. Test the change in a non-production environment first.

Evidence timeline and material changes

Published upstream
Aug 28, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
Source modified
Aug 28, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
First seen by HOL
Aug 28, 2026

Sources and claim methodology

Upstream source description

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.

Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.