What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-26960: node-tar has Arbitrary File Read/Write via Hardlink Target Escape Through Symlink Chain in Extraction

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.1 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2026-02-20 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-22

Description

node-tar is a full-featured Tar for Node.js. When using default options in versions 7.5.7 and below, an attacker-controlled archive can create a hardlink inside the extraction directory that points to a file outside the extraction root, enabling arbitrary file read and write as the extracting user. Severity is high because the primitive bypasses path protections and turns archive extraction into a direct filesystem access primitive. This issue has been fixed in version 7.5.8.

Affected products

• isaacs node-tar: before 7.5.8 — fixed in 7.5.8
• Npm Tar: before 7.5.8 — fixed in 7.5.8

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: isaacs node-tar 7.5.8; Npm Tar 7.5.8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/commit/2cb1120bcefe28d7ecc719b41441ade59c52e384
• https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/commit/d18e4e1f846f4ddddc153b0f536a19c050e7499f
• https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/security/advisories/GHSA-83g3-92jg-28cx

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