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RcloneApplication

CVE-2026-54572

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-07-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.74.4 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 5 weeks old

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
Rclone is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers. Prior to 1.74.4, with -l/--links, rclone serializes symlinks as .rclonelink text objects and recreates them on a local destination without validating the target, allowing an attacker-controlled remote to plant an escaping symlink and cause a following object write to land outside the destination with attacker-chosen contents. This issue is fixed in version 1.74.4.

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 · high confidence

In rclone versions prior to 1.74.4, the -l/--links flag causes symlinks to be serialized as .rclonelink text files when uploading to a remote, and recreated as actual symlinks when downloading. The recreation process does not validate the symlink target, allowing an attacker-controlled remote to inject a symlink with an absolute path or parent-directory traversal (e.g., ../../etc/cron.d), causing subsequent object writes to be written outside the intended destination directory.

MitigationUpgrade rclone to version 1.74.4 or later. Alternatively, avoid using the --links flag with untrusted or potentially compromised remotes.

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
RcloneApplication
Affected:< 1.74.4

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
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
High
Availability
Low

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

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 installed rclone version
    Run 'rclone version' to see the version number
    Affected if Version is earlier than 1.74.4 (e.g., 1.74.3, 1.74.2, etc.)
  2. Identify use of --links flag
    Search config files (typically ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf), command history, and scripts for '--links' or '-l' flags when running rclone commands
    Affected if The --links or -l flag is used in any rclone commands, particularly with 'rclone copy' or 'rclone sync' operations that download from remotes
  3. Inspect remotes for .rclonelink files
    Use 'rclone ls <remote>:' to list files and look for files ending in '.rclonelink', or manually browse the remote storage backend
    Affected if .rclonelink files exist on the remote and contain path traversal sequences like '../' or absolute paths (e.g., ../../etc/cron.d) rather than safe relative paths

You are affected if you run rclone version < 1.74.4 and use the --links flag to download from a remote containing .rclonelink files with malicious path traversal targets.

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 1.74.4 or later
Fixed in 1.74.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade rclone to version 1.74.4 or later. Alternatively, avoid using the --links flag with untrusted or potentially compromised remotes.

Recommended fix High confidence

1.74.4

  1. Download rclone version 1.74.4 or later from the official rclone downloads page (https://rclone.org/downloads/)
  2. Verify the downloaded binary's checksum matches the published checksum for your platform
  3. Replace the existing rclone binary with the new version, or run the installer for your operating system
  4. Confirm the installed version is 1.74.4 or later by running: rclone version
  5. If using automated scripts or configurations, update any pinned version specifications to 1.74.4 or newer

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

Fix this in Rclone Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.

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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-2026-54572 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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