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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2021-37712

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2021-08-31
  • WeaknessCWE-22 · CWE-59

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

The npm package "tar" (aka node-tar) before versions 4.4.18, 5.0.10, and 6.1.9 has an arbitrary file creation/overwrite and arbitrary code execution vulnerability. node-tar aims to guarantee that any file whose location would be modified by a symbolic link is not extracted. This is, in part, achieved by ensuring that extracted directories are not symlinks. Additionally, in order to prevent unnecessary stat calls to determine whether a given path is a directory, paths are cached when directories are created. This logic was insufficient when extracting tar files that contained both a directory and a symlink with names containing unicode values that normalized to the same value. Additionally, on Windows systems, long path portions would resolve to the same file system entities as their 8.3 "short path" counterparts. A specially crafted tar archive could thus include a directory with one form of the path, followed by a symbolic link with a different string that resolves to the same file system entity, followed by a file using the first form. By first creating a directory, and then replacing that directory with a symlink that had a different apparent name that resolved to the same entry in the filesystem, it was thus possible to bypass node-tar symlink checks on directories, essentially allowing an untrusted tar file to symlink into an arbitrary location and subsequently extracting arbitrary files into that location, thus allowing arbitrary file creation and overwrite. These issues were addressed in releases 4.4.18, 5.0.10 and 6.1.9. The v3 branch of node-tar has been deprecated and did not receive patches for these issues. If you are still using a v3 release we recommend you update to a more recent version of node-tar. If this is not possible, a workaround is available in the referenced GHSA-qq89-hq3f-393p.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2021-08-3117:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2021-37712?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2021-37712?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD · OSV
Npmjs tarversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
4.4≤ 4.4.17no fix published
5.0≥ 5.0.0, ≤ 5.0.9no fix published
6.x≥ 6.0.0, ≤ 6.1.8no fix published
tar
BranchAffectedFixed in
6.x≥ 6.0.0, < 6.1.96.1.9
5.0≥ 5.0.0, < 5.0.105.0.10
4.4≥ 3.0.0, < 4.4.184.4.18
Debian debian linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
10.0= 10.0no fix published
11.0= 11.0no fix published

2 more products in the sources.

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • nodejsAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 1:14.18.2-2.module_el8.5.0+254+b4526b16and 3 other packages
  • nodejsAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 1:14.18.2-2.module_el8.5.0+2618+8d46dafdand 3 other packages
  • nodejs-nodemonAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 2.0.15-1.module_el8.5.0+2605+45d748af
  • nodejs-nodemonAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 2.0.15-1.module_el8.5.0+2618+8d46dafd
  • nodejs-nodemonAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 2.0.15-1.module_el8.6.0+2904+f21ad6f4
  • nodejs-packagingAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 23-3.module_el8.4.0+2522+3bd42762
  • nodejs-packagingAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 23-3.module_el8.5.0+2618+8d46dafd
  • npmAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 1:6.14.15-1.14.18.2.2.module_el8.5.0+254+b4526b16

1 more package range on OSV.dev

Full record on NVD

Fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub

Sources

  • CNACVSS 3.18.2read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 3.18.6read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.04.4read 2026-10-23
  • CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-22, CWE-59read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-59read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score1.9 %2026-10-23
  • OSVaffected packages—

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2021-08-31
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-37712?

The npm package "tar" (aka node-tar) before versions 4.4.18, 5.0.10, and 6.1.9 has an arbitrary file creation/overwrite and arbitrary code execution vulnerability. node-tar aims to guarantee that any file whose location would be modified by a symbolic link is not extracted. This is, in part, achieved by ensuring that extracted directories are not symlinks. Additionally, in order to prevent unnecessary stat calls to determine whether a given path is a directory, paths are cached when directories are created. This logic was insufficient when extracting tar files that contained both a directory and a symlink with names containing unicode values that normalized to the same value. Additionally, on Windows systems, long path portions would resolve to the same file system entities as their 8.3 "short path" counterparts. A specially crafted tar archive could thus include a directory with one form of the path, followed by a symbolic link with a different string that resolves to the same file system entity, followed by a file using the first form. By first creating a directory, and then replacing that directory with a symlink that had a different apparent name that resolved to the same entry in the filesystem, it was thus possible to bypass node-tar symlink checks on directories, essentially allowing an untrusted tar file to symlink into an arbitrary location and subsequently extracting arbitrary files into that location, thus allowing arbitrary file creation and overwrite. These issues were addressed in releases 4.4.18, 5.0.10 and 6.1.9. The v3 branch of node-tar has been deprecated and did not receive patches for these issues. If you are still using a v3 release we recommend you update to a more recent version of node-tar. If this is not possible, a workaround is available in the referenced GHSA-qq89-hq3f-393p.

Is CVE-2021-37712 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2021-37712 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 1.9% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2021-37712?

CVE-2021-37712 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.6 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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