CVE-2026-53655

node-tar is a full-featured Tar for Node.js. Prior to 7.5.16, tar (node-tar) applies a PAX extended header's size= record (and other PAX overrides) to the next header entry of any type, including intermediary metadata headers such as a GNU long-name (L) or long-link (K) entry. Per POSIX pax, a PAX extended header (x) describes the next file entry, not the intermediary extension headers that may sit between the x header and the file it annotates. Because node-tar lets the PAX size override the byte length of an intervening L/K/x header, an attacker can desynchronize node-tar's stream cursor relative to every other mainstream tar implementation (GNU tar, libarchive/bsdtar, Python tarfile, and the now-fixed tar-rs / astral-tokio-tar). The result is a tar parser interpretation differential (CWE-436): a single crafted archive yields a different set of members under node-tar than under the reference tar tools. An attacker can use this to hide a member from one parser while it is visible to another, which defeats security tooling whose scanner and extractor disagree on archive contents (e.g. a malware/secret scanner that lists entries with one library while a downstream step extracts with another) This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.16.

node-tar is a full-featured Tar for Node.js. Prior to 7.5.16, tar (node-tar) applies a PAX extended header's size= record (and other PAX overrides) to the next header entry of any type, including intermediary metadata headers such as a GNU long-name (L) or long-link (K) entry. Per POSIX pax, a PAX extended header (x) describes the next file entry, not the intermediary extension headers that may sit between the x header and the file it annotates. Because node-tar lets the PAX size override the byte length of an intervening L/K/x header, an attacker can desynchronize node-tar's stream cursor relative to every other mainstream tar implementation (GNU tar, libarchive/bsdtar, Python tarfile, and the now-fixed tar-rs / astral-tokio-tar). The result is a tar parser interpretation differential (CWE-436): a single crafted archive yields a different set of members under node-tar than under the reference tar tools. An attacker can use this to hide a member from one parser while it is visible to another, which defeats security tooling whose scanner and extractor disagree on archive contents (e.g. a malware/secret scanner that lists entries with one library while a downstream step extracts with another) This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.16.

Affected versions of acorn are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service. A regex in the form of /[x-\ud800]/u causes the parser to enter an infinite loop. The string is not valid UTF16 which usually results in it being sanitized before reaching the parser. If an application processes untrusted input and passes it directly to acorn, attackers may leverage the vulnerability leading to Denial of Service.

Summary

tar (node-tar) applies a PAX extended header's size= record (and other PAX overrides) to the next header entry of any type, including intermediary metadata headers such as a GNU long-name (L) or long-link (K) entry. Per POSIX pax, a PAX extended header (x) describes the next file entry, not the intermediary extension headers that may sit between the x header and the file it annotates. Because node-tar lets the PAX size override the byte length of an intervening L/K/x header, an attacker can desynchronize node-tar's stream cursor relative to every other mainstream tar implementation (GNU tar, libarchive/bsdtar, Python tarfile, and the now-fixed tar-rs / astral-tokio-tar).

The result is a tar parser interpretation differential (CWE-436): a single crafted archive yields a different set of members under node-tar than under the reference tar tools. An attacker can use this to hide a member from one parser while it is visible to another, which defeats security tooling whose scanner and extractor disagree on archive contents (e.g. a malware/secret scanner that lists entries with one library while a downstream step extracts with another). node-tar is one of the most widely deployed JavaScript tar libraries (it backs npm's own package-tarball handling and is a transitive dependency of a very large fraction of the npm ecosystem), so the blast radius for "files that extract differently depending on the tool" is broad.

This is the same root cause and fix that was just addressed upstream in the Rust tar ecosystem (tar-rs / astral-tokio-tar); node-tar carries the equivalent defect and has no equivalent guard.

Impact

• CWE-436 Interpretation Conflict / inconsistent tar parsing (the same class as the prior tar "smuggling" advisories GHSA-j5gw-2vrg-8fgx and GHSA-fp55-jw48-c537).
• A crafted archive can present one logical member list to a tool that lists or scans with node-tar and a different member list to GNU tar / libarchive / Python tarfile (and vice versa). This lets a malicious file be hidden from a scanner that uses a different parser than the eventual extractor, or hidden from node-tar-based inspection while still landing on disk via a system tar.
• No authentication is required; the only precondition is that a victim parses an attacker-supplied tar with node-tar. Tar archives are routinely fetched from untrusted sources (package registries, user uploads, CI artifacts, container layers).
• Severity: Medium. Impact is integrity-of-archive-interpretation, not direct RCE; it is a building block for supply-chain / scanner-evasion attacks rather than a standalone code-execution primitive.

Vulnerable code (file:line)

src/header.ts (compiled to dist/esm/header.js:49 and dist/commonjs/header.js:85 in the published [email protected]):

// Header.decode(buf, off, ex, gex)
this.size = ex?.size ?? gex?.size ?? decNumber(buf, off + 124, 12)

ex is the currently-accumulated PAX local extended header and gex the PAX global header. The size override from ex/gex is applied unconditionally to whatever header is being decoded next — there is no check that the header being decoded is a real file entry rather than an intermediary extension header.

src/parse.ts, [CONSUMEHEADER] constructs the next header with the current EX/GEX applied:

const header = new Header(chunk, position, this[EX], this[GEX])

and later branches on whether that header is a metadata entry. this[EX] is cleared only in the non-meta (real file) branch:

if (entry.meta) {
  // L / K / x / g metadata entries: this[EX] is left intact here
  if (entry.size > this.maxMetaEntrySize) {
    entry.ignore = true
    this[STATE] = 'ignore'
    entry.resume()
  } else if (entry.size > 0) {
    this[META] = ''
    entry.on('data', c => (this[META] += c))
    this[STATE] = 'meta'
  }
} else {
  this[EX] = undefined   // EX cleared only once a real…

node-tar is a full-featured Tar for Node.js. Prior to 7.5.16, tar (node-tar) applies a PAX extended header's size= record (and other PAX overrides) to the next header entry of any type, including intermediary metadata headers such as a GNU long-name (L) or long-link (K) entry. Per POSIX pax, a PAX extended header (x) describes the next file entry, not the intermediary extension headers that may sit between the x header and the file it annotates. Because node-tar lets the PAX size override the byte length of an intervening L/K/x header, an attacker can desynchronize node-tar's stream cursor relative to every other mainstream tar implementation (GNU tar, libarchive/bsdtar, Python tarfile, and the now-fixed tar-rs / astral-tokio-tar). The result is a tar parser interpretation differential (CWE-436): a single crafted archive yields a different set of members under node-tar than under the reference tar tools. An attacker can use this to hide a member from one parser while it is visible to another, which defeats security tooling whose scanner and extractor disagree on archive contents (e.g. a malware/secret scanner that lists entries with one library while a downstream step extracts with another) This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.16.

node-tar is a full-featured Tar for Node.js. Prior to 7.5.16, tar (node-tar) applies a PAX extended header's size= record (and other PAX overrides) to the next header entry of any type, including intermediary metadata headers such as a GNU long-name (L) or long-link (K) entry. Per POSIX pax, a PAX extended header (x) describes the next file entry, not the intermediary extension headers that may sit between the x header and the file it annotates. Because node-tar lets the PAX size override the byte length of an intervening L/K/x header, an attacker can desynchronize node-tar's stream cursor relative to every other mainstream tar implementation (GNU tar, libarchive/bsdtar, Python tarfile, and the now-fixed tar-rs / astral-tokio-tar). The result is a tar parser interpretation differential (CWE-436): a single crafted archive yields a different set of members under node-tar than under the reference tar tools. An attacker can use this to hide a member from one parser while it is visible to another, which defeats security tooling whose scanner and extractor disagree on archive contents (e.g. a malware/secret scanner that lists entries with one library while a downstream step extracts with another) This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.16.