CVE-2026-26960
HIGH7.1EPSS 0.01%Arbitrary File Read/Write via Hardlink Target Escape Through Symlink Chain in node-tar Extraction
Published: 2/18/2026Modified: 5/16/2026
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 packages (2)
- Debian/node-tarfrom 0, < 6.0.5+ds1+~cs11.3.9-1+deb11u3
- npm/tarfrom 0, < 7.5.8
CVSS scores
| Source | Version | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| osv | CVSS 3.1 | HIGH7.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N |
References (6)
- ADVISORYhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-26960
- ADVISORYhttps://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-26960
- PATCHhttps://github.com/isaacs/node-tar
- WEBhttps://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/commit/2cb1120bcefe28d7ecc719b41441ade59c52e384
- WEBhttps://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/commit/d18e4e1f846f4ddddc153b0f536a19c050e7499f
- WEBhttps://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/security/advisories/GHSA-83g3-92jg-28cx