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TI-2021-15588 Aliases CVE-2021-37713GHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh

Arbitrary File Creation/Overwrite on Windows via insufficient relative path sanitization

Priority MEDIUM 40CWE-22Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · High · High
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and GitHub.

Summary

The npm package "tar" (aka node-tar) before versions 4.4.18, 5.0.10, and 6.1.9 has an arbitrary file creation/overwrite and arbitrary code execution vulnerability. 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. These issues were addressed in releases 4.4.18, 5.0.10 and 6.1.9. The v3 branch of node-tar has been deprecated and did not receive patches for these issues. If you are still using a v3 release we recommend you update to a more recent version of node-tar. 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 attempt to sanitize paths themselves.

Why it matters now

EPSS 0.01273 70th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed node-tar (npm): 4.4.18, 5.0.10, 6.1.9tar (npm): 4.4.18, 5.0.10, 6.1.9

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
npmnode-tarbefore 4.4.18; 5.0.0 to before 5.0.10; 6.0.0 to before 6.1.94.4.18, 5.0.10, 6.1.9Patch availableCNA
—tar (npm)before 4.4.184.4.18Patch availableGHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh
—tar (npm)5.0.0 to before 5.0.105.0.10Patch availableGHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh
—tar (npm)6.0.0 to before 6.1.96.1.9Patch availableGHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh
  • node-tar Vendornpm Affected before 4.4.18; 5.0.0 to before 5.0.10; 6.0.0 to before 6.1.9 Fixed in 4.4.18, 5.0.10, 6.1.9 Patch available CNA
  • tar (npm) Vendor— Affected before 4.4.18 Fixed in 4.4.18 Patch available GHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh
  • tar (npm) Vendor— Affected 5.0.0 to before 5.0.10 Fixed in 5.0.10 Patch available GHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh
  • tar (npm) Vendor— Affected 6.0.0 to before 6.1.9 Fixed in 6.1.9 Patch available GHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh

CPE configurations NVD · 5

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:npmjs:tar:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*before 4.4.18; 5.0.0 to before 5.0.10; 6.0.0 to before 6.1.9VulnerableNpmjs
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*not specified by NVDRunning onMicrosoft
cpe:2.3:a:oracle:graalvm:20.3.3:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*20.3.3VulnerableOracle
cpe:2.3:a:oracle:graalvm:21.2.0:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*21.2.0VulnerableOracle
cpe:2.3:a:siemens:sinec_infrastructure_network_services:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*before 1.0.1.1VulnerableSiemens
  • cpe:2.3:a:npmjs:tar:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:* Versions before 4.4.18; 5.0.0 to before 5.0.10; 6.0.0 to before 6.1.9 Vulnerable ·Npmjs
  • cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions not specified by NVD Running on ·Microsoft
  • cpe:2.3:a:oracle:graalvm:20.3.3:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:* Versions 20.3.3 Vulnerable ·Oracle
  • cpe:2.3:a:oracle:graalvm:21.2.0:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:* Versions 21.2.0 Vulnerable ·Oracle
  • cpe:2.3:a:siemens:sinec_infrastructure_network_services:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions before 1.0.1.1 Vulnerable ·Siemens

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA node-tar (npm) Fixed in 4.4.18, 5.0.10, 6.1.9
  • Fix · GHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh tar (npm) Fixed in 4.4.18 Advisory →
  • Fix · GHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh tar (npm) Fixed in 5.0.10 Advisory →
  • Fix · GHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh tar (npm) Fixed in 6.1.9 Advisory →

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat's page for this CVE →

Not affected: 1 product
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-37713
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-5955-9wpr-37jh

References

Sources