CVE-2026-10621: Collibra Agent Path Traversal Vulnerability

CVE-2026-10621 Overview

CVE-2026-10621 is a path traversal vulnerability in the restore handler of Collibra Agent. The flaw allows an unauthenticated network attacker to write arbitrary files on the host by submitting a crafted ZIP archive. Collibra Agent fails to validate and canonicalize file paths during ZIP extraction, enabling extraction outside the intended directory. This class of issue is commonly known as a Zip Slip vulnerability [CWE-22].

Critical Impact
An attacker can write arbitrary files to locations outside the extraction directory, leading to integrity compromise of the Collibra Agent host and potential follow-on code execution through overwritten configuration or binary files.

Affected Products

Collibra Agent (restore handler component)

Discovery Timeline

2026-06-02 - CVE-2026-10621 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2026-06-02 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-10621

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the restore handler responsible for processing ZIP archives in Collibra Agent. When the agent extracts archive contents, it consumes entry names from the ZIP central directory without verifying that the resolved destination remains within the target extraction root. An attacker who submits a ZIP archive containing entries with traversal sequences such as ../ or absolute path prefixes can write files to arbitrary locations accessible to the agent process.

The attack does not require authentication, user interaction, or local access. The integrity impact is high because attackers control both the file content and the destination path within the privileges of the Collibra Agent process. Confidentiality and availability are not directly affected by the primitive itself, but arbitrary file write often serves as a foothold for code execution by overwriting scripts, scheduled tasks, or service binaries.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing canonicalization and validation of ZIP entry names before file creation. The extraction logic concatenates the attacker-controlled entry name with the destination directory without resolving the absolute path and confirming it remains a descendant of the extraction root. This is the canonical Zip Slip pattern [CWE-22].

Attack Vector

An attacker delivers a crafted ZIP archive to the restore endpoint exposed by Collibra Agent. Entries within the archive contain relative traversal sequences such as ..\..\..\Windows\System32\ on Windows or ../../etc/cron.d/ on Linux. When the agent extracts the archive, files are written to the attacker-chosen path with the privileges of the agent service. No verified public exploit is available at the time of publication.

For a technical description of the underlying class of bug and remediation patterns, see the CERT Vulnerability Advisory #873170.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-10621

Indicators of Compromise

ZIP archives uploaded to or processed by Collibra Agent containing entry names with ../, ..\, or absolute path prefixes such as /etc/ or C:\.
Unexpected files appearing outside the configured Collibra Agent extraction directory, particularly in system, startup, or service binary paths.
Modification timestamps on sensitive configuration or scheduled-task files that correlate with restore operations.

Detection Strategies

Inspect Collibra Agent logs for restore operations and correlate extracted file paths against the expected extraction root.
Enable file integrity monitoring on directories outside the agent extraction root that the agent should never write to.
Add detection content that parses ZIP central directory entries on network ingest and flags traversal characters in file names.

Monitoring Recommendations

Monitor process activity for the Collibra Agent service writing files outside its working directory tree.
Alert on creation or modification of files in privileged paths such as /etc/cron.*, systemd unit directories, ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, or Windows startup folders by the agent process.
Forward Collibra Agent and host filesystem telemetry to a centralized analytics platform for retrospective hunting across restore events.

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-10621

Immediate Actions Required

Restrict network access to the Collibra Agent restore handler so that only trusted management hosts can submit archives.
Run the Collibra Agent under a least-privileged service account that cannot write to system or other application directories.
Audit recent restore operations for archives containing path traversal sequences and review hosts for unexpected file writes.

Patch Information

No vendor patch reference is included in the NVD record at the time of publication. Refer to the CERT Vulnerability Advisory #873170 and the Collibra Security Overview for vendor-provided fixed versions and remediation guidance. Apply the vendor-supplied update for Collibra Agent as soon as it is available.

Workarounds

Block or quarantine ZIP archives at network ingress points if they contain entries with ../, ..\, or absolute path prefixes.
Place the Collibra Agent extraction directory on a dedicated filesystem or mount with no execution rights and restricted permissions to limit the impact of out-of-bounds writes.
Disable the restore functionality on agents that do not require it until a vendor patch is applied.

bash

# Example: pre-validate a ZIP archive for traversal entries before allowing restore
unzip -l suspect.zip | awk '{print $4}' | grep -E '(^/|\.\./|\.\.\\)' \
  && echo "BLOCK: archive contains path traversal entries" \
  || echo "OK: no traversal entries detected"