CVE-2023-52138
HIGHEPSS 75th pctlDescription
Engrampa is an archive manager for the MATE environment. Engrampa is found to be vulnerable to a Path Traversal vulnerability that can be leveraged to achieve full Remote Command Execution (RCE) on the target. While handling CPIO archives, the Engrampa Archive manager follows symlink, cpio by default will follow stored symlinks while extracting and the Archiver will not check the symlink location, which leads to arbitrary file writes to unintended locations. When the victim extracts the archive, the attacker can craft a malicious cpio or ISO archive to achieve RCE on the target system. This vulnerability was fixed in commit 63d5dfa.
How to fix
This Ubuntu release reached end-of-life on 2023-05-31. Extended security maintenance is available until 2028-04-01.
This Ubuntu release reached end-of-life on 2025-05-31. Extended security maintenance is available until 2030-04-02.
This Ubuntu release reached end-of-life on 2023-05-31. Extended security maintenance is available until 2028-04-01.
This Ubuntu release reached end-of-life on 2025-05-31. Extended security maintenance is available until 2030-04-02.
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Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Impact
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:N
Exploit Intelligence
Elevated risk: more likely to be exploited than 75% of all known CVEs.
References
Related Vulnerabilities
Other CWE-25 vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all
| CVE | Severity | CVSS | EPSS | Exploited | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2022-20775 | High | 7.8 | 12% | KEV | Fix |
| CVE-2025-68916 | Critical | 9.1 | 2.6% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2023-52076 | High | 8.5 | 1.1% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2023-6118 | High | 7.5 | 0.8% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2023-6947 | High | 7.7 | 0.7% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2024-2442 | High | 7.5 | 0.7% | - | - |
Common questions
How do I fix CVE-2023-52138?
Published advisories record a fix for 3 affected products. The "How to fix" section on this page lists the fixed version and source advisory for each one, so apply the entry matching what you actually run.
Is CVE-2023-52138 being actively exploited?
Not that we know of. CVE-2023-52138 is not in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Its EPSS score of 1.7% is the estimated probability that it will be exploited in the next 30 days. That is higher than 75% of all scored CVEs.
How severe is CVE-2023-52138?
CVE-2023-52138 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.2, rated high. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.
What does CVE-2023-52138 affect?
Published advisories record a fix for engrampa (Debian), engrampa (Ubuntu), engrampa-common (Ubuntu). Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.
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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-06-17.