Vulnerability · Published Sep 14, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck
CVE-2026-89021MikroTik RouterOS Path Traversal via Container OCI/tar Image Extraction
Medium 6.9
In plain English
A medium-severity path traversal in RouterOS from MikroTik. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.4% (higher than 32% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official description
MikroTik RouterOS before 7.24.2 contains a path traversal vulnerability in the container package OCI/tar image extraction that allows attackers to write files outside the container root by supplying a crafted container image with symlinks pointing to arbitrary paths. Attackers can exploit unsanitized tar member path extraction during container import via /container/add to achieve root-privileged file creation, directory creation, file deletion via overlayfs whiteout, and hardlink creation on the persistent data partition without ever starting the container. The 7.23.x long-term branch does not contain this fix; the container binaries in container-7.23.3.npk and container-7.23.4.npk are byte-identical. The vendor has confirmed that the issue is not resolved in the long-term release and that the fix is carried forward only in the stable branch from 7.24.2 onward, with no backport to the long-term branch planned.
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-59, CWE-22 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:L
References
- 7.24.2 Release Notes patch, release-notes
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/mikrotik-routeros-path-traversal-via-container-oci-tar-image-extraction third-party-advisory