CVE-2026-81838 - Zip Slip path traversal in awsdac (diagram-as-code)

Bulletin ID: 2026-090-AWS Scope: AWS Content Type: Important (requires attention) Publication Date: 08/27/2026 13:00 PM PDT awsdac (diagram-as-code) is a CLI tool that generates AWS architecture diagrams from YAML definitions, enabling version-controlled, code-driven diagramming. We identified CVE-2026-81838, a Zip Slip (path traversal) issue. When awsdac extracts a zip archive referenced by a ZipFile resource in a definition file, a crafted archive can write files outside the intended cache directory, to any path writable by the user running awsdac. Depending on the file written, this can lead to arbitrary code execution. Leveraging this issue requires processing a definition file from an untrusted source. This can occur when: - awsdac is run without definition trust restrictions (versions prior to 0.22.4 had no trust distinction; version 0.22.4 and later require the −−allow−untrusted−definitions flag), or - a definition file is loaded from the local filesystem ('Type: LocalFile'), which bypasses the definition URL allowlist. CI/CD environments that process definition files from untrusted or semi-trusted sources are the primary risk scenario. awsdac is a client-side CLI tool th...