CVE-2025-6218
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.
do firstApply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Can a WAF block it? No. The attack needs local access to the machine, so a WAF is not on its path.
Also consider: canonical path validation
Based on the attack vector (local or physical access). We check Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud Armor and Azure; for Akamai, Imperva, Fastly, F5, ask your vendor.
Is CVE-2025-6218 being exploited?
Yes. CVE-2025-6218 appears in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed and reported. Treat it as active rather than theoretical, and patch it ahead of higher-scoring vulnerabilities that carry no exploitation evidence.
How severe is CVE-2025-6218?
CVE-2025-6218 is rated High with a CVSS score of 7.8. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2025-6218?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2025-6218. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2025-6218 affect?
CVE-2025-6218 affects rarlab:winrar. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
- affected7.11 (64-bit)
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.
public exploits
Unvetted proof-of-concept code on GitHub: 6 GitHub proofs of concept
- skimask1690/CVE-2025-6218-POC · 30 ★
- absholi7ly/CVE-2025-6218-WinRAR-Directory-Traversal-RCE · 19 ★
- speinador/CVE-2025-6218_WinRAR · 16 ★
- ignis-sec/CVE-2025-6218 · 12 ★
Listed so you can judge urgency, not as a recommendation to run anything. GitHub “proofs of concept” are unvetted: some are fake or carry malware. Exploit-DB marks the entries its staff verified.
cisa ssvc
- exploitation
- active
- automatable
- no
- technical impact
- total
Assessed by CISA 10 Dec 2025 (SSVC 2.0.3).
timeline
- 21 Jun 2025Published
- 27 Jun 2025First proof-of-concept repository on GitHub (unvetted) · 6 days later
- 9 Dec 2025Added to CISA KEV (exploited in the wild) · 165 days (about 6 months) later
- 10 Dec 2025CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation active · 1 day later
- 30 Dec 2025CISA remediation due date (US federal agencies) · 20 days later
- 26 Feb 2026CVE record last updated · 59 days later
- 2 Nov 2026Analysed by vulneraibility.com · 249 days (about 8 months) later
- Advisoryzerodayinitiative.com /advisories/ZDI-25-409/
- Advisorywin-rar.com /singlenewsview.html?&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=276&cHash=388885bd3908a40726f535c02
- Advisorysecpod.com /blog/archive-terror-dissecting-the-winrar-cve-2025-6218-exploit-apt-c-08s-steal
- Advisoryforesiet.com /blog/apt-c-08-winrar-directory-traversal-exploit/
- Linkcisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-6218
sources
- CVE List (CVE.org): description, affected versions, references; CVE Terms of Use
- NVD: CVSS and CPE data
- CISA KEV catalog: exploitation, date added, due date
- CISA Vulnrichment (ADP): SSVC decision points
- FIRST EPSS: exploit probability and percentile
- PoC-in-GitHub: GitHub repositories that claim a proof of concept
- Summary, impact and triage tags: written by our AI analysis pipeline from the sources above. Check them against the sources.