VulnTideExploited vulnerabilities, by vendor. Data as of 28 Oct 2026.
Known exploitedIn CISA's KEV catalog since 25 August 2022Ransomware use: unknown
PEAR Archive_Tar

CVE-2020-28949: PEAR Archive_Tar Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability

Is it exploited?

Yes. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 25 Aug 2022, 644 days after the CVE record was published.

How likely is exploitation in the next 30 days?
84.6%

EPSS score, percentile 99.7 of all scored records

How severe?
7.8 High

CVSS v3.1 base score, from CISA's enrichment of the record

What should I do?

Required action (CISA), due 15 Sep 2022: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Advisories and patches (8)

Which versions are affected?

Not stated. The CVE record gives vendor and product as “n/a” and the version as “unspecified”.

Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, 2026.10.28, as of 28 Oct 2026; FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), v2026.06.15, as of 28 Oct 2026; CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.

What to do

Required action, set by CISA

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

CISA due date for this action: 15 September 2022.

Advisories and patches

Linked from CISA's catalog entry

Affected products and versions

The CVE record does not name affected products or versions: vendor and product are “n/a” and the version is “unspecified”.

Source: CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.

About this vulnerability

PEAR Archive_Tar allows an unserialization attack because phar: is blocked but PHAR: is not blocked. PEAR stands for PHP Extension and Application Repository and it is an open-source framework and distribution system for reusable PHP components with known usage in third-party products such as Drupal Core and Red Hat Linux.

Summary: CISA's KEV catalog, as of 28 Oct 2026.

  • CISA added CVE-2020-28949 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 25 Aug 2022.
  • CISA's ransomware flag for this entry is "Unknown": no evidence of ransomware use in the catalog, which is not proof of none.
  • The due date CISA sets for the required action is 15 Sep 2022.
  • The CVE record was published on 19 Nov 2020, 644 days before it was added to KEV.
  • The CVE record carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (High), taken from CISA's enrichment of the record.
  • FIRST's EPSS model puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 84.6% (percentile 99.7), as of 28 Oct 2026.
  • CISA's SSVC assessment in the CVE record: exploitation active, automatable no, technical impact total.

Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, 2026.10.28, as of 28 Oct 2026; CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026; FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), v2026.06.15, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.

Description

Archive_Tar through 1.4.10 has :// filename sanitization only to address phar attacks, and thus any other stream-wrapper attack (such as file:// to overwrite files) can still succeed.

Source: CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.

Weakness

CWE and CAPEC are maintained by MITRE; the entries are those named in the CVE record and the KEV entry.

Timeline

DateEvent
19 Nov 2020CVE record published
25 Aug 2022Added to CISA KEV
15 Sep 2022CISA due date for the required action
21 Oct 2025CVE record last updated

References

More exploited PEAR vulnerabilities

  • CVE-2020-36193: PEAR Archive_Tar Improper Link Resolution Vulnerability (added 25 Aug 2022)