Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 2 Sep 2025. Known ransomware use
WinrarApplication · Rarlab

CVE-2025-8088

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-08-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.13 / 2023.01 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Ransomware High EPSS Remotely reachable No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A path traversal vulnerability affecting the Windows version of WinRAR allows the attackers to execute arbitrary code by crafting malicious archive files. This vulnerability was exploited in the wild and was discovered by Anton Cherepanov, Peter Košinár, and Peter Strýček from ESET.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

A path traversal vulnerability in the Windows version of WinRAR allows attackers to craft malicious archive files that can write files to arbitrary filesystem locations, enabling arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability was actively exploited in the wild.

MitigationApply the vendor patch for WinRAR as soon as it becomes available; until then, exercise extreme caution with archive files from untrusted sources and consider blocking or monitoring RAR file handling in enterprise environments.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
WinrarApplication
Affected:< 7.13
DtsearchApplication
Affected:< 2023.01

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check WinRAR version via Help menu
    Open WinRAR, click Help menu, then About WinRAR to view the version number displayed in the dialog
    Affected if The displayed version is below 7.13 (for example, 7.12, 7.10, 6.x, etc.)
  2. Check WinRAR version from executable properties
    Locate winrar.exe (typically in C:\Program Files\WinRAR or C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR), right-click, select Properties, and view the version in the Details tab
    Affected if The File version shown is less than 7.13.0.0
  3. Check WinRAR version via command line
    Open Command Prompt or PowerShell, navigate to the WinRAR installation directory, and run: winrar -ver or winrar /?
    Affected if The reported version number is lower than 7.13

If WinRAR version is below 7.13, the environment is affected by this path traversal vulnerability when extracting archives from untrusted sources.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.13 / 2023.01 or later
Fixed in 7.132023.01
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor patch for WinRAR as soon as it becomes available; until then, exercise extreme caution with archive files from untrusted sources and consider blocking or monitoring RAR file handling in enterprise environments.

Recommended fix High confidence

WinRAR 7.13

  1. Download WinRAR version 7.13 or later from the official WinRAR website (www.win-rar.com)
  2. Uninstall the current vulnerable version of WinRAR
  3. Install the downloaded WinRAR 7.13 or later version

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Winrar Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
Get it fixed fast

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,424.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-8088 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-8088 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data