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High

Arbitrary File Creation/Overwrite on Windows via insufficient relative path sanitization

  • Disclosed: 31.08.2021
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 10:22

Impact

Arbitrary File Creation, Arbitrary File Overwrite, Arbitrary Code Execution

node-tar aims to guarantee that any file whose location would be outside of the extraction target directory is not extracted. This is, in part, accomplished by sanitizing absolute paths of entries within the archive, skipping archive entries that contain .. path portions, and resolving the sanitized paths against the extraction target directory.

This logic was insufficient on Windows systems when extracting tar files that contained a path that was not an absolute path, but specified a drive letter different from the extraction target, such as C:some\path. If the drive letter does not match the extraction target, for example D:\extraction\dir, then the result of path.resolve(extractionDirectory, entryPath) would resolve against the current working directory on the C: drive, rather than the extraction target directory.

Additionally, a .. portion of the path could occur immediately after the drive letter, such as C:../foo, and was not properly sanitized by the logic that checked for .. within the normalized and split portions of the path.

This only affects users of node-tar on Windows systems.

Patches

4.4.18 || 5.0.10 || 6.1.9

Workarounds

There is no reasonable way to work around this issue without performing the same path normalization procedures that node-tar now does.

Users are encouraged to upgrade to the latest patched versions of node-tar, rather than attempt to sanitize paths themselves.

Fix

The fixed versions strip path roots from all paths prior to being resolved against the extraction target folder, even if such paths are not "absolute".

Additionally, a path starting with a drive letter and then two dots, like c:../, would bypass the check for .. path portions. This is checked properly in the patched versions.

Finally, a defense in depth check is added, such that if the entry.absolute is outside of the extraction taret, and we are not in preservePaths:true mode, a warning is raised on that entry, and it is skipped. Currently, it is believed that this check is redundant, but it did catch some oversights in development.

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
npm package tar < 4.4.18, >= 5.0.0, < 5.0.10, >= 6.0.0, < 6.1.9 4.4.18, 5.0.10, 6.1.9

References

CVSS score 8.2/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-22
Platform
npm
Package
tar
Disclosed
31.08.2021
Updated
11.10.2026 10:22

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: tar

All published vulnerabilities of this package (npm package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

All (21) in the archive
Total entries
21
First → latest
10.2017 07.2026
Without a fix
0
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • Critical 1
  • High 15
  • Medium 5

Disclosures per year

Severity:
  1. node-tar: Uncontrolled recursion in mapHas/filesFilter allows uncatchable stack-overflow DoS via crafted long-path tar with member selection
    High · 7.5 CVE-2026-73566 < 7.5.21 7.5.21
  2. node-tar: Decompression/parse DoS via unlimited input
    Critical · 7.5 CVE-2026-59873 < 7.5.19 7.5.19
  3. node-tar: Negative tar entry size causes infinite loop in archive replace
    High · 7.5 CVE-2026-59874 < 7.5.18 7.5.18
  4. node-tar Symlink Path Traversal via Drive-Relative Linkpath
    High CVE-2026-31802 < 7.5.11 7.5.11
  5. tar has Hardlink Path Traversal via Drive-Relative Linkpath
    High CVE-2026-29786 < 7.5.10 7.5.10
  6. Arbitrary File Read/Write via Hardlink Target Escape Through Symlink Chain in node-tar Extraction
    High · 7.1 CVE-2026-26960 < 7.5.8 7.5.8
  7. node-tar Vulnerable to Arbitrary File Creation/Overwrite via Hardlink Path Traversal
    High · 8.2 CVE-2026-24842 < 7.5.7 7.5.7
  8. Race Condition in node-tar Path Reservations via Unicode Ligature Collisions on macOS APFS
    High · 8.8 CVE-2026-23950 < 7.5.4 7.5.4
  9. node-tar is Vulnerable to Arbitrary File Overwrite and Symlink Poisoning via Insufficient Path Sanitization
    High CVE-2026-23745 < 7.5.3 7.5.3
  10. Arbitrary File Creation/Overwrite via insufficient symlink protection due to directory cache poisoning using symbolic links
    High · 8.2 CVE-2021-37701 >= 3.0.0, < 4.4.16, >= 5.0.0, < 5.0.8, >= 6.0.0, < 6.1.7 4.4.16, 5.0.8, 6.1.7
  11. Arbitrary File Creation/Overwrite via insufficient symlink protection due to directory cache poisoning using symbolic links
    High · 8.2 CVE-2021-37712 >= 3.0.0, < 4.4.18, >= 5.0.0, < 5.0.10, >= 6.0.0, < 6.1.9 4.4.18, 5.0.10, 6.1.9
  12. Arbitrary File Creation/Overwrite on Windows via insufficient relative path sanitization this entry
    High · 8.2 CVE-2021-37713 < 4.4.18, >= 5.0.0, < 5.0.10, >= 6.0.0, < 6.1.9 4.4.18, 5.0.10, 6.1.9
  13. Arbitrary File Creation/Overwrite due to insufficient absolute path sanitization
    High · 8.2 CVE-2021-32804 < 3.2.2, >= 4.0.0, < 4.4.14, >= 5.0.0, < 5.0.6, >= 6.0.0, < 6.1.1 3.2.2, 4.4.14, 5.0.6, 6.1.1
  14. Arbitrary File Creation/Overwrite via insufficient symlink protection due to directory cache poisoning
    High · 8.2 CVE-2021-32803 >= 3.0.0, < 3.2.3, >= 4.0.0, < 4.4.15, >= 5.0.0, < 5.0.7, >= 6.0.0, < 6.1.2 3.2.3, 4.4.15, 5.0.7, 6.1.2
  15. Arbitrary File Overwrite in tar
    High · 7.5 CVE-2018-20834 >= 3.0.0, < 4.4.2, < 2.2.2 4.4.2, 2.2.2
  16. Symlink Arbitrary File Overwrite in tar
    High · 7.5 CVE-2015-8860 < 2.0.0 2.0.0

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