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CVE-2021-37713

Path Traversal in tar (CVE-2021-37713)

Summary

Path traversal in tar (CVE-2021-37713). Confidential information can be exposed externally. Exploitable via entry.absolute. Mitigation: upgrade to 4.4.18 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

Impact

Arbitrary File Creation, Arbitrary File Overwrite, Arbitrary Code Execution

node-tar aims to guarantee that any file whose location would be outside of the extraction target directory is not extracted. This is, in part, accomplished by sanitizing absolute paths of entries within the archive, skipping archive entries that contain .. path portions, and resolving the sanitized paths against the extraction target directory.

This logic was insufficient on Windows systems when extracting tar files that contained a path that was not an absolute path, but specified a drive letter different from the extraction target, such as C:some\path. If the drive letter does not match the extraction target, for example D:\extraction\dir, then the result of path.resolve(extractionDirectory, entryPath) would resolve against the current working directory on the C: drive, rather than the extraction target directory.

Additionally, a .. portion of the path could occur immediately after the drive letter, such as C:../foo, and was not properly sanitized by the logic that checked for .. within the normalized and split portions of the path.

This only affects users of node-tar on Windows systems.

Patches

4.4.18 || 5.0.10 || 6.1.9

Workarounds

There is no reasonable way to work around this issue without performing the same path normalization procedures that node-tar now does.

Users are encouraged to upgrade to the latest patched versions of node-tar, rather than…

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD GitHub Advisory OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2021-37713 has been found in tar.
Attackers can target a specific entry point like entry.absolute over the network to misuse the product.
Confidential information can be exposed externally.
What to do: upgrade tar to 4.4.18 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "tar CVE-2021-37713" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2021-37713 (tar) — CWE-22
Attack vector: local / unauthenticated
Attack surface: entry.absolute
Patched: 4.4.18 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

Path traversal (CWE-22) exists in tar. Attackers reach the vulnerable code path via entry.absolute without authentication.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of tar. Attack surface: entry.absolute.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Confidential information can be exposed externally.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 4.4.18.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'tar' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

  1. 1
    Identify exposure identify 
    grep -r 'tar' . | grep -v node_modules

    リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で tar を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。

  2. 2
    Apply patch patch 
    Upgrade tar to 4.4.18

    ステージング環境で 4.4.18 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。

  3. 3
    Post-deployment verification verify 
    Confirm patched version is live in production

    パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

npm tar
[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"6.0.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.9"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

References

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