isaacs node-tar up to 7.5.6 path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in isaacs node-tar up to 7.5.6. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality. Executing a manipulation can lead to path traversal. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-24842. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in isaacs node-tar up to 7.5.6 and classified as critical. This vulnerability affects some unknown functionality. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-22. 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. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

node-tar,a Tar for Node.js, contains a vulnerability in versions prior to 7.5.7 where the security check for hardlink entries uses different path resolution semantics than the actual hardlink creation logic. This mismatch allows an attacker to craft a malicious TAR archive that bypasses path traversal protections and creates hardlinks to arbitrary files outside the extraction directory. Version 7.5.7 contains a fix for the issue.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-24842 since 01/27/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is required for a successful exploitation. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1006.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 297040 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-24842), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 7.5.7 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch f4a7aa9bc3d717c987fdf1480ff7a64e87ffdb46 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at CNNVD (CNNVD-202601-4837), Tenable (297040) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0770). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Atlassian Jira

Productinfo

Vendor

• isaacs

Name

• node-tar

Version

• 7.5.0
• 7.5.1
• 7.5.2
• 7.5.3
• 7.5.4
• 7.5.5
• 7.5.6

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/

CPE 2.3info

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Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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