SB2021080328 - Path traversal in NPM Tar

Description

This security bulletin contains information about 1 vulnerability.

1) Absolute Path Traversal (CVE-ID: CVE-2021-32804)

CWE-ID: CWE-36 - Absolute Path Traversal

CVSSv4: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Green

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to overwrite arbitrary files on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to a logic issue when file paths contained repeated path roots such as ////home/user/.bashrc. node-tar would only strip a single path root from such paths. When given an absolute file path with repeating path roots, the resulting path (e.g. ///home/user/.bashrc) would still resolve to an absolute path, thus allowing arbitrary file creation and overwrite.

Remediation

Install update from vendor's website.

References

• https://github.com/npm/node-tar/commit/1f036ca23f64a547bdd6c79c1a44bc62e8115da4
• https://github.com/npm/node-tar/security/advisories/GHSA-3jfq-g458-7qm9