CVE-2026-27976 HIGH

CVE-2026-27976: Zed Extension Sandbox Escape via Tar Symlink Following

Vendor Zed-Industries
Product zed
Weakness CWE-61
Published February 25, 2026
Last update February 27, 2026

CVSS base score

8.8/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction Required
Confidentiality High
Integrity High

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

Zed, a code editor, has an extension installer allows tar/gzip downloads. Prior to version 0.224.4, the tar extractor (`async_tar::Archive::unpack`) creates symlinks from the archive without validation, and the path guard (`writeable_path_from_extension`) only performs lexical prefix checks without resolving symlinks. An attacker can ship a tar that first creates a symlink inside the extension workdir pointing outside (e.g., `escape -> /`), then writes files through the symlink, causing writes to arbitrary host paths. This escapes the extension sandbox and enables code execution. Version 0.224.4 patches the issue.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

February 25, 2026 CVE published
February 27, 2026 Record updated