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OpenAdvisories

Description

node-tar is a full-featured Tar for Node.js. Prior to 7.5.16, tar (node-tar) applies a PAX extended header's size= record (and other PAX overrides) to the next header entry of any type, including intermediary metadata headers such as a GNU long-name (L) or long-link (K) entry. Per POSIX pax, a PAX extended header (x) describes the next file entry, not the intermediary extension headers that may sit between the x header and the file it annotates. Because node-tar lets the PAX size override the byte length of an intervening L/K/x header, an attacker can desynchronize node-tar's stream cursor relative to every other mainstream tar implementation (GNU tar, libarchive/bsdtar, Python tarfile, and the now-fixed tar-rs / astral-tokio-tar). The result is a tar parser interpretation differential (CWE-436): a single crafted archive yields a different set of members under node-tar than under the reference tar tools. An attacker can use this to hide a member from one parser while it is visible to another, which defeats security tooling whose scanner and extractor disagree on archive contents (e.g. a malware/secret scanner that lists entries with one library while a downstream step extracts with another) This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.16.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
isaacs node-tar < 7.5.16 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 node-tar 7.5.16+~4.0.1-2 —
Debian 13 node-tar No fix yet —
Debian 12 node-tar No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 node-tar No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS node-tar No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 node-tar No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS node-tar No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS node-tar No fix yet —
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS node-tar No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS node-tar No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS node-tar No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS node-tar No fix yet —

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 nodejs24 +4 1:24.18.1-1.amzn2023.0.2 ALAS2023-2026-2059
Amazon Linux 2023 nodejs24-npm 1:11.16.0-1.24.18.1.1.amzn2023.0.2 ALAS2023-2026-2059
Amazon Linux 2023 v8-13.6-devel 3:13.6.233.17-1.24.18.1.1.amzn2023.0.2 ALAS2023-2026-2059

Wolfi

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Wolfi rolling code-server 4.124.2-r1 —
Wolfi rolling jupyter-base-notebook 7.6.3-r2 —
Wolfi rolling katib-earlystopping +8 0.19.0-r31 —
Wolfi rolling katib-suggestion-goptuna-compat 0.19.0-r40 —
Wolfi rolling lerna 9.0.7-r10 —
Wolfi rolling npm 11.17.0-r2 —
Wolfi rolling pnpm-stage0 8.7.4-r7 —
Wolfi rolling prism 5.15.11-r3 —
Wolfi rolling pulumi-language-nodejs 3.246.0-r1 —
Wolfi rolling py3.10-jupyterlab +3 4.6.1-r1 —
Wolfi rolling renovate 43.235.1-r0 —
Wolfi rolling saf 1.6.0-r1 —
Wolfi rolling sqlpad 7.5.7-r28 —
Wolfi rolling thingsboard-tb-web-ui +1 4.3.1.3-r1 —
Wolfi rolling tileserver-gl 5.6.0-r7 —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
npm tar < 7.5.16 7.5.16 GHSA-vmf3-w455-68vh

Advisories 2

References