TarApplication · Isaacs

CVE-2026-59873

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-07-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.5.19 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available 6 weeks old

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
node-tar is a tar archive manipulation library for Node.js. Prior to 7.5.19, node-tar does not enforce hard upper bounds on total decompressed data, entry counts, or decompression ratio in extraction and parsing paths such as src/extract.ts, allowing a small crafted gzip bomb to exhaust disk space and CPU. This issue is fixed in version 7.5.19.

In the news

Third-party coverage
Trending covered by 1 outlet this week · latest 1mo ago

Surfaced from public web coverage — external links open in a new tab.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

node-tar before 7.5.19 lacks hard upper bounds on decompressed data size, entry counts, and decompression ratio in extraction paths (src/extract.ts), allowing attackers to embed small gzip bombs in tar archives that expand to enormous sizes during extraction, exhausting disk space and CPU.

MitigationUpgrade node-tar to version 7.5.19 or later to enforce bounds checking on decompression and prevent resource exhaustion from crafted archives.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
TarApplication
Affected:< 7.5.19

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Locate node-tar in your project dependencies
    Check package.json for node-tar in dependencies, or run 'npm ls node-tar' to see installed packages
    Affected if node-tar is listed as a dependency with version lower than 7.5.19
  2. Verify the installed node-tar version
    Run 'npm list node-tar' or check node_modules/node-tar/package.json for the version field
    Affected if The installed version is below 7.5.19
  3. Identify if extraction functionality is used
    Search your codebase for calls to tar.extract(), tar.Extract, or unpack methods from the node-tar module
    Affected if Your code calls extraction methods from node-tar to unpack tar archives from untrusted sources
  4. Check for custom size limit enforcement
    Review your extraction code for options like maxSize, maxFiles, or similar limit parameters passed to extraction methods
    Affected if No size or count limits are enforced on extracted content and the node-tar version is below 7.5.19

Your environment is affected if node-tar below version 7.5.19 is installed and your application uses its extraction functionality to unpack tar archives, especially from untrusted sources, without additional size limits.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.5.19 or later
Fixed in 7.5.19
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade node-tar to version 7.5.19 or later to enforce bounds checking on decompression and prevent resource exhaustion from crafted archives.

Recommended fix High confidence

node-tar version 7.5.19 or later

  1. Check the current version of node-tar in use (e.g., run `npm list tar` or inspect package.json)
  2. Update the node-tar dependency to version 7.5.19 or later in package.json
  3. Run `npm install` to install the updated version
  4. Verify the upgrade was successful by running `npm list tar` to confirm the installed version
  5. Run existing tests to ensure the upgrade does not break functionality

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Tar Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,720
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,752.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-59873 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data