Penelope Shell Handler is a post-exploitation shell handler for authorized security testing. Prior to 0.20.0, the Unix download() implementation in penelope.py used tar.extractall(local_download_folder) on tar archives returned by remote sessions without validating member paths, allowing a malicious or compromised session to write files outside the intended download directory and potentially overwrite ~/.penelope/peneloperc. This issue is fixed in version 0.20.0.

No CVSS v4.0

Attack Vector Network

Attack Complexity High

Privileges Required None

Scope Unchanged

Confidentiality Impact None

Integrity Impact High

Availability Impact Low

User Interaction Required

No CVSS v3.0

No CVSS v2

This CVE is not in the KEV list.

No EPSS score available.

Key SSVC decision points have not yet been added.

Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).

Vendor Product Default status Versions
brightio penelope affected
Version Status Constraints
< 0.20.0 affected —

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Project Subscriptions

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Advisories
Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-f42x-p2mx-hm8r Penelope unsafe tar extraction allows arbitrary local file write via crafted session archive
Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.

Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

References
Link Providers
https://github.com/brightio/penelope/commit/a040afb5db32c7e80b5e8a2f9b2164cf911cfa62 cve-icon
https://github.com/brightio/penelope/releases/tag/v0.20.0 cve-icon
https://github.com/brightio/penelope/security/advisories/GHSA-f42x-p2mx-hm8r cve-icon
History

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Penelope Shell Handler is a post-exploitation shell handler for authorized security testing. Prior to 0.20.0, the Unix download() implementation in penelope.py used tar.extractall(local_download_folder) on tar archives returned by remote sessions without validating member paths, allowing a malicious or compromised session to write files outside the intended download directory and potentially overwrite ~/.penelope/peneloperc. This issue is fixed in version 0.20.0.
Title Penelope unsafe tar extraction allows arbitrary local file write via crafted session archive
Weaknesses CWE-22
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L'}

Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-07-29T15:34:05.042Z

Reserved: 2026-06-04T21:34:34.426Z

Link: CVE-2026-50558

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

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cve-icon Redhat

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cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

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Weaknesses