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VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2026-31802: isaacs node-tar · Path Traversal

Affects isaacs node-tarSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.2 High : upgrade to 7.5.11 soon.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 06:59 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
8.2High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 19% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 7.5.11
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:H/SA:N

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 9 Mar 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: evidence found.

    Public exploit code: GitHub proofs of concept

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), GitHub proofs of concept, the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 29 Oct 2026.

What to do

Upgrade isaacs node-tar to 7.5.11.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
isaacsnode-tarAffected
  • <7.5.11
Fixed in
  • 7.5.11
npmnode-tarpkg:npm/node-tarOther threatsAffected
  • <7.5.11
Fixed in
  • 7.5.11

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

To mitigate this vulnerability, organizations should immediately upgrade all instances of node-tar to version 7.5.11 or later, where the path traversal issue is fixed. Review and restrict the sources of tar archives to trusted origins to reduce exposure to malicious files. Implement validation and sanitization of archive contents before extraction, especially checking for symlinks and their targets. Consider running extraction processes with least privilege, using sandboxed or containerized environments to limit the impact of potential exploitation. Monitor file system changes during extraction for unexpected modifications outside intended directories. For Windows environments, pay special attention to drive-relative symlink handling. Additionally, incorporate security scanning tools in the CI/CD pipeline to detect vulnerable node-tar versions and prevent deployment of affected code. Educate developers and DevOps teams about the risks of processing untrusted archives and enforce secure coding practices around file extraction.

Description

node-tar is a full-featured Tar for Node.js. Prior to version 7.5.11, tar (npm) can be tricked into creating a symlink that points outside the extraction directory by using a drive-relative symlink target such as C:../../../target.txt, which enables file overwrite outside cwd during normal tar.x() extraction. This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.11.

References

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