CVE-2026-26960 | node-tar has Arbitrary File Read/Write via Hardlink Target Escape Through Symlink Chain in Extraction

Exp

node-tar is a full-featured Tar for Node.js. When using default options in versions 7.5.7 and below, an attacker-controlled archive can create a hardlink inside the extraction directory that points to a file outside the extraction root, enabling arbitrary file read and write as the extracting user. Severity is high because the primitive bypasses path protections and turns archive extraction into a direct filesystem access primitive. This issue has been fixed in version 7.5.8.

Published: 2026-02-20 Last update: 2026-02-20 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-26960 is rated Exploit Available (50.8/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.29%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-26960

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-26960

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.01% 0.29% +0.27%
2 2026-02-20 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-26960

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 5.2 [email protected]
7.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 5.2 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-26960

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-26960

GHSA-83g3-92jg-28cx · Severity: high · Ecosystem: npm — Arbitrary File Read/Write via Hardlink Target Escape Through Symlink Chain in node-tar Extraction

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-26960

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2026-26960: 1 source package rows (tar); 33 state rows across 6 repos (3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, 3.23-main, edge-main); fixed 33, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2026-26960
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-26960 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (node-tar), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-26960
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-26960
suse high CVE-2026-26960 severity important: SUSE including 35 source package names (corepack20, corepack22, …), 137 product×package rows across 18 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, … (18 product lines)): Known Not Affected 137. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-26960/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-26960 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (node-tar), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-26960

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-26960

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
isaacs tar < 7.5.8 cpe:2.3:a:isaacs:tar:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*

References for CVE-2026-26960

cvelogic Threat Intelligence