When mounting a remote filesystem using NFS, the kernel did not sanitize remotely provided filenames for the path separator character, "/". This allows readdir(3) and related functions to return filesystem entries with names containing additional path components. The lack of validation described above gives rise to a confused deputy problem. For example, a program copying files from an NFS mount could be tricked into copying from outside the intended source directory, and/or to a location outside the intended destination directory.
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.