CriticalCVE-2025-6218

    RARLAB WinRAR Directory Traversal Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2025-6218)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: pwn.watch, CVE.org

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    What is affected, what to do

    RARLAB WinRAR Directory Traversal Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of RARLAB WinRAR.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. Update winrar to version 7.12. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • RARLAB WinRAR eq 7.11 (64-bit)..7.11 (64-bit)

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    7.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    7.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: pwn.watch, CVE.org

    90.5 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.80

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    228.13 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploitedSource: VulnCheck KEV (opens in a new tab) How we classify
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    7.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    7.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    90.5 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.80
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · not automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 10 December 2025
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-22

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    Exploitation requires user interaction and local execution, but WinRAR is ubiquitous on Windows endpoints. A single phished archive yields full code execution in the user's context with no prior authentication. Attackers typically abuse the traversal to silently drop payloads into the Startup folder and gain persistence at the next logon. That makes it a natural fit for targeted spear-phishing against public administration, government and industrial organisations. Exploitation likelihood ranks among the very highest of all tracked CVEs, even though CISA reports no known ransomware use. Organisations with broad WinRAR deployment and heavy inbound external email should treat this update as critical and complete fleet-wide rollout within days.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Upgrade WinRAR to 7.12 or later. Per the context, versions up to and including 7.11 are affected, and 7.12 contains the fix. We recommend deploying the current stable release from rarlab.com directly. WinRAR does not auto-update, so you must push it via Intune, SCCM or your software distribution tooling.
      • Build an inventory. Find every host carrying WinRAR.exe, Rar.exe, UnRAR.exe or UnRAR.dll by checking file version or HKLM\SOFTWARE\WinRAR. Include portable copies in user profiles and third-party products that embed UnRAR.dll. Request patch status from those vendors.
      • Remove WinRAR where there is no business need. Windows 11 native archive support or an approved alternative tool shrinks the attack surface permanently.
      • Run a retrospective compromise check. Sweep the user and all-users Startup folders (%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp) for files created around the time RAR archives were opened. Typical candidates are .lnk, .bat, .cmd, .vbs, .js, .hta and .exe.
      • Send a targeted user advisory. Tell high-exposure teams not to open RAR archives from unsolicited email or downloads. This mainly covers procurement, HR, executives and accounts payable.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Mail and web gateway: Quarantine or block RAR attachments from external senders. Inspect archives server-side for entries containing ..\, ../ or absolute paths. Most sandboxes and mail security products support an archive-inspection rule for this.
      • Application control (WDAC/AppLocker): Block execution of scripts and binaries from user Startup folders, %TEMP% and %APPDATA%. Allow only the approved WinRAR build via publisher-and-version rules so that portable legacy copies cannot run.
      • Endpoint hardening: Enable Defender ASR rules, notably "Block execution of potentially obfuscated scripts", "Block JavaScript or VBScript from launching downloaded executable content" and "Use advanced protection against ransomware". Make sure Group Policy has not disabled Mark-of-the-Web.
      • Least privilege: Users should run without local admin rights. Code executes as the current user, so removing admin rights confines persistence to the user profile and hampers lateral movement.
      • Network segmentation: Admin workstations and OT-adjacent hosts (KRITIS) must not open internet-sourced archives directly. Route files through a sanitisation or transfer gateway with pre-inspection instead.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Sysmon EID 11 / MDE DeviceFileEvents – WinRAR writing to Startup: DeviceFileEvents | where InitiatingProcessFileName in~ ("WinRAR.exe","Rar.exe","UnRAR.exe") | where FolderPath has @"\Start Menu\Programs\Startup". Treat any hit as high severity.
      • Generic extraction escape: Sigma shape: logsource: windows/file_event, Image|endswith: '\WinRAR.exe', TargetFilename|contains: ['\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\', '\Windows\System32\', '\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\']. Also flag files written outside the chosen destination folder within the same extraction timestamp.
      • Sysmon EID 1 / Event ID 4688 – suspicious process ancestry: WinRAR.exe spawning cmd.exe, powershell.exe, wscript.exe, mshta.exe or rundll32.exe. Also flag explorer.exe launching newly created Startup-folder scripts at logon.
      • Network telemetry (Zeek/Suricata, proxy): Outbound HTTP(S) or DNS from processes launched out of Startup or %APPDATA% paths shortly after first logon. Correlate with a prior .rar download or mail delivery.
      • Mail gateway logs: Delivery of RAR attachments with double extensions or with archive entries whose names contain ..\. Use these as threat-hunting pivots.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    RARLAB WinRAR Directory Traversal Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of RARLAB WinRAR. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the handling of file paths within archive files. A crafted file path can cause the process to traverse to unintended directories. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current user. Was ZDI-CAN-27198.

    Source: pwn.watch, NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    RARLABWinRAR
    • 7.11 (64-bit)
    • —
    rarlabwinrar
    • < 7.12
    • 7.12

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-22Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

      Base

      The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-22

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited

    References & sources

    • zerodayinitiative.comZDI-25-409x_research-advisory, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • win-rar.comvendor-provided URLVendor advisory, Release notes
    • secpod.comblog/archive-terror-dissecting-the-winrar-cve-2025-6218-exploit…Third-party advisory, Exploit, Third-party advisory
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-6218government-resource, US government resource
    • foresiet.comblog/apt-c-08-winrar-directory-traversal-exploitThird-party advisory, Exploit, Third-party advisory
    • pwn.watchpwn.watch: RARLAB WinRAR: WinRAR Path Traversal Vulnerabilitypwn-watch
    • win-rar.comRARLAB advisory: RARLAB WinRARpwn-watch
    • NVD (NIST)NVD: CVE-2025-6218pwn-watch
    • cisa.govCISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogpwn-watch
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