uv has differential in tar extraction with PAX headers
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Fixed
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from GitHub.
Summary
### Impact In versions 0.9.4 and earlier of uv, tar archives containing PAX headers with file size overrides were not handled properly. As a result, an attacker could contrive a source distribution (as a tar archive) that would extract differently when installed via uv versus other Python package installers. The underlying parsing differential here originates with astral-tokio-tar, which disclosed this vulnerability as CVE-2025-62518. In practice, the impact of this vulnerability is **low**: only source distributions can be formatted as tar archives, and source distributions execute arbitrary code at build/installation time by definition. Consequently, a parser differential in tar extraction is strictly less powerful than the capabilities already exposed to an attacker who has the ability to control source distributions. However, this particular source of malleability in source distributions is unintentional and not operating by design, and therefore we consider it a vulnerability despite its overlap in capabilities with intended behavior. ### Patches Versions 0.9.5 and newer of uv address the vulnerability above. Users should upgrade to 0.9.5 or newer. ### Workarounds Users are advised to upgrade to version 0.9.5 or newer to address this advisory. Users should experience no breaking changes as a result of the patch above. ### References * See CVE-2025-62518 for the corresponding advisory against astral-tokio-tar
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | uv (PyPI) | before 0.9.5 | 0.9.5 | Patch available | GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9 |
- uv (PyPI) Vendor— Affected before 0.9.5 Fixed in 0.9.5 Patch available GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9 uv (PyPI) Fixed in 0.9.5 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-03 Threatist record created from GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9
References
Sources
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