CVE-2026-23745
node-tar is Vulnerable to Arbitrary File Overwrite and Symlink Poisoning via Insufficient Path Sanitization
Executive Summary
CVE-2026-23745 is a high severity vulnerability affecting binary-analysis. It is classified as an undisclosed flaw. Ensure your systems and dependencies are patched immediately to mitigate exposure risks.
Precogs AI Insight
"The underlying mechanism of this vulnerability involves within ### Summary, allowing a lack of rigorous type checking mechanisms. A threat actor could leverage this oversight to escalate their own privileges to administrative levels without proper credentials. The Precogs Binary SAST engine detects such memory corruption vulnerabilities to block malicious interactions before they reach production."
What is this vulnerability?
CVE-2026-23745 is categorized as a critical Memory Corruption Vulnerability flaw. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.
Summary
The node-tar library (\<= 7.5.2) fails to sanitize the linkpath of Link (hardlink) and SymbolicLink entries when preservePaths is f.
This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.
Risk Assessment
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| CVSS Base Score | 7.5 (HIGH) |
| Vector String | N/A |
| Published | January 16, 2026 |
| Last Modified | February 22, 2026 |
| Related CWEs | N/A |
Impact on Systems
✅ Remote Code Execution: Adversaries may execute arbitrary code by overwriting memory regions.
✅ Denial of Service: Memory corruption often leads to unrecoverable application crashes.
✅ Information Disclosure: Out-of-bounds reads can expose adjacent memory containing sensitive data.
How to fix this issue?
Implement the following strategic mitigations immediately to eliminate the attack surface.
1. Memory-Safe Languages When possible, migrate parsing logic to memory-safe languages like Rust or Go.
2. Compiler Protections Ensure the binary is compiled with ASLR, DEP/NX, Stack Canaries, and RELRO.
3. Fuzz Testing Implement continuous fuzzing with AddressSanitizer (ASan) in the CI/CD pipeline.
Vulnerability Signature
// Generic Memory Corruption Vector (C/C++)
void process_input(char *user_data, size_t size) \{
char buffer[256];
// DANGEROUS: Unbounded memory operation
memcpy(buffer, user_data, size); // size may exceed 256
// SECURED: Bound-checked operation
if (size \> sizeof(buffer)) \{
size = sizeof(buffer);
\}
memcpy(buffer, user_data, size);
\}
References and Sources
Vulnerability Code Signature
Attack Data Flow
| Stage | Detail |
|---|---|
| Source | Network packet or file input |
| Vector | Data exceeds the allocated buffer bounds during a copy operation |
| Sink | strcpy(), memcpy(), or pointer arithmetic |
| Impact | Memory corruption, Remote Code Execution (RCE) |
Vulnerable Code Pattern
// ❌ VULNERABLE: Memory Corruption
void process_data(char *input) {
char buffer[128];
// Taint sink: copies without bounds checking
strcpy(buffer, input);
}
Secure Code Pattern
// ✅ SECURE: Bounded Memory Operations
void process_data(char *input) {
char buffer[128];
// Sanitized boundary check
strncpy(buffer, input, sizeof(buffer) - 1);
buffer[sizeof(buffer) - 1] = '\0';
}
How Precogs Detects This
Precogs Binary SAST engine explicitly uncovers memory boundary violations and unsafe memory management functions in compiled binaries.\n