Path Traversal in Isaacs Node-Tar

CVE-2026-26960

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.

Vulnerability class: Path Traversal (Directory Traversal)

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.1 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (13.1th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 13th percentile — 13.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-26960: held from 0.003 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.002 · change: -0.001

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-26960?
CVE-2026-26960 is a high-severity vulnerability in Isaacs Node-Tar, classified under Path Traversal. CVSS score: 7.1/10. Published 2026-02-20.
How severe is CVE-2026-26960?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.1 out of 10.