GNU Tar through 1.35 allows file overwrite via directory traversal in crafted TAR archives, with a certain two-step process. First, the victim must extract an archive that contains a ../ symlink to a critical directory. Second, the victim must extract an archive that contains a critical file, specified via a relative pathname that begins with the symlink name and ends with that critical file's name. Here, the extraction follows the symlink and overwrites the critical file. This bypasses the protection mechanism of "Member name contains '..'" that would occur for a single TAR archive that attempted to specify the critical file via a ../ approach. For example, the first archive can contain "x -> ../../../../../home/victim/.ssh" and the second archive can contain x/authorized_keys. This can affect server applications that automatically extract any number of user-supplied TAR archives, and were relying on the blocking of traversal. This can also affect software installation processes in which "tar xf" is run more than once (e.g., when installing a package can automatically install two dependencies that are set up as untrusted tarballs instead of official packages).
CVSS Score
4.1
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2025-07-11
In GNU tar before 1.35, mishandled extension attributes in a PAX archive can lead to an application crash in xheader.c.
CVSS Score
6.2
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2024-03-27
GNU Tar through 1.34 has a one-byte out-of-bounds read that results in use of uninitialized memory for a conditional jump. Exploitation to change the flow of control has not been demonstrated. The issue occurs in from_header in list.c via a V7 archive in which mtime has approximately 11 whitespace characters.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2023-01-30
A flaw was found in the src/list.c of tar 1.33 and earlier. This flaw allows an attacker who can submit a crafted input file to tar to cause uncontrolled consumption of memory. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to system availability.
CVSS Score
3.3
EPSS Score
0.001
Published
2021-03-26
pax_decode_header in sparse.c in GNU Tar before 1.32 had a NULL pointer dereference when parsing certain archives that have malformed extended headers.
CVSS Score
7.5
EPSS Score
0.005
Published
2019-03-22
GNU Tar through 1.30, when --sparse is used, mishandles file shrinkage during read access, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (infinite read loop in sparse_dump_region in sparse.c) by modifying a file that is supposed to be archived by a different user's process (e.g., a system backup running as root).
CVSS Score
4.7
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2018-12-26
Directory traversal vulnerability in the safer_name_suffix function in GNU tar 1.14 through 1.29 might allow remote attackers to bypass an intended protection mechanism and write to arbitrary files via vectors related to improper sanitization of the file_name parameter, aka POINTYFEATHER.
CVSS Score
7.5
EPSS Score
0.164
Published
2016-12-09
Heap-based buffer overflow in the rmt_read__ function in lib/rtapelib.c in the rmt client functionality in GNU tar before 1.23 and GNU cpio before 2.11 allows remote rmt servers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) or possibly execute arbitrary code by sending more data than was requested, related to archive filenames that contain a : (colon) character.
CVSS Score
6.8
EPSS Score
0.019
Published
2010-03-15
Buffer overflow in the safer_name_suffix function in GNU tar has unspecified attack vectors and impact, resulting in a "crashing stack."
CVSS Score
7.5
EPSS Score
0.118
Published
2007-09-05
Directory traversal vulnerability in the contains_dot_dot function in src/names.c in GNU tar allows user-assisted remote attackers to overwrite arbitrary files via certain //.. (slash slash dot dot) sequences in directory symlinks in a TAR archive.
CVSS Score
6.8
EPSS Score
0.087
Published
2007-08-25
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