CVE-2026-23986
Copier safe template has arbitrary filesystem write access via directory symlinks when _preserve_symlinks: true
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 6.9 Medium
- Published
- Jan 21, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 22, 2026
- Reserved
- Jan 19, 2026
Description
Copier is a library and CLI app for rendering project templates. Prior to version 9.11.2, Copier suggests that it's safe to generate a project from a safe template, i.e. one that doesn't use unsafe features like custom Jinja extensions which would require passing the `--UNSAFE,--trust` flag. As it turns out, a safe template can currently write to arbitrary directories outside the destination path by using directory a symlink along with `_preserve_symlinks: true` and a generated directory structure whose rendered path is inside the symlinked directory. This way, a malicious template author can create a template that overwrites arbitrary files (according to the user's write permissions), e.g., to cause havoc. Version 9.11.2 patches the issue.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | 6.9 Medium | CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N | GitHub_M |
Weaknesses
- CWE-61 UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
copiercopier-org |
|
References
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