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ln: rejects non-UTF-8 source filenames in target-directory mode

Low severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 30, 2026 in uutils/coreutils • Updated Jul 6, 2026

Package

cargo uu_ln (Rust)

Affected versions

< 0.6.0

Patched versions

0.6.0

Description

In target-directory forms (ln SOURCE... DIRECTORY), ln rejects source paths with non-UTF-8 filename bytes, while GNU accepts them. Breaks GNU compatibility for byte-oriented filenames on Unix filesystems.

PoC:

name=$(printf 'bad_\377'); mkdir dst; : > "$name"; ln "$name" dst
# GNU: exit 0, creates dst/bad_\377 ; uutils: exit 1, dst empty

Zellic private finding (zellic-ext/coreutils-private PR #84). Reported in the Zellic uutils coreutils Program Security Assessment (for Canonical, Jan 2026), audited commit 3a07ffc5a9bd4c283e75afa548ba1f1957bad242.

References

@sylvestre sylvestre published to uutils/coreutils May 30, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jul 6, 2026
Reviewed Jul 6, 2026
Last updated Jul 6, 2026

Severity

Low

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(2nd percentile)

Weaknesses

Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding

The product does not properly handle when an input contains Unicode encoding. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-35373

GHSA ID

GHSA-jcjr-rh8q-7xqf

Source code

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