CVE-2026-23986 MEDIUM

CVE-2026-23986: Copier safe template has arbitrary filesystem write access via directory symlinks when _preserve_symlinks: true

Vendor Copier-Org
Product copier
Weakness CWE-61
Published January 21, 2026
Last update January 22, 2026

CVSS base score

6.9/10
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction
Confidentiality
Integrity

CVSS vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

What the vulnerability does

01Description

Copier is a library and CLI app for rendering project templates. Prior to version 9.11.2, Copier suggests that it's safe to generate a project from a safe template, i.e. one that doesn't use unsafe features like custom Jinja extensions which would require passing the `--UNSAFE,--trust` flag. As it turns out, a safe template can currently write to arbitrary directories outside the destination path by using directory a symlink along with `_preserve_symlinks: true` and a generated directory structure whose rendered path is inside the symlinked directory. This way, a malicious template author can create a template that overwrites arbitrary files (according to the user's write permissions), e.g., to cause havoc. Version 9.11.2 patches the issue.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

January 21, 2026 CVE published
January 22, 2026 Record updated