CVE-2024-28863 — Vulnerability in node-tar — CVE Details
MEDIUM
Denial of service while parsing a tar file due to lack of folders count validation
Published March 22, 2024Updated September 10, 2026Source: osv
What Should I Do?
Address in Next Maintenance Window
Low exploitation probability (0.45%). Schedule for your next planned update.
Summary
## Description:
During some analysis today on npm's `node-tar` package I came across the folder creation process, Basicly if you provide node-tar with a path like this `./a/b/c/foo.txt` it would create every folder and sub-folder here a, b and c until it reaches the last folder to create `foo.txt`, In-this case I noticed that there's no validation at all on the amount of folders being created, that said we're actually able to CPU and memory consume the system running node-tar and even crash the nodejs client within few seconds of running it using a path with too many sub-folders inside
## Steps To Reproduce:
You can reproduce this issue by downloading the tar file I provided in the resources and using node-tar to extract it, you should get the same behavior as the video
## Proof Of Concept:
Here's a [video](https://hackerone-us-west-2-production-attachments.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/3i7uojw8s52psar6pg8zkdo4h9io?response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3D%22tar-dos-poc.webm%22%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27tar-dos-poc.webm&response-content-type=video%2Fwebm&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAQGK6FURQSWWGDXHA%2F20240312%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240312T080103Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEDcaCXVzLXdlc3QtMiJHMEUCID3xYDc6emXVPOg8iVR5dVk0u3gguTPIDJ0OIE%2BKxj17AiEAi%2BGiay1gGMWhH%2F031fvMYnSsa8U7CnpZpxvFAYqNRwgqsQUIQBADGgwwMTM2MTkyNzQ4NDkiDAaj6OgUL3gg4hhLLCqOBUUrOgWSqaK%2FmxN6nKRvB4Who3LIyzswFKm9LV94GiSVFP3zXYA480voCmAHTg7eBL7%2BrYgV2RtXbhF4aCFMCN3qu7GeXkIdH7xwVMi9zXHkekviSKZ%2FsZtVVjn7RFqOCKhJl%2FCoiLQJuDuju%2FtfdTGZbEbGsPgKHoILYbRp81K51zeRL21okjsOehmypkZzq%2BoGrXIX0ynPOKujxw27uqdF4T%2BF9ynodq01vGgwgVBEjHojc4OKOfr1oW5b%2FtGVV59%2BOBVI1hqIKHRG0Ed4SWmp%2BLd1hazGuZPvp52szmegnOj5qr3ubppnKL242bX%2FuAnQKzKK0HpwolqXjsuEeFeM85lxhqHV%2B1BJqaqSHHDa0HUMLZistMRshRlntuchcFQCR6HBa2c8PSnhpVC31zMzvYMfKsI12h4HB6l%2FudrmNrvmH4LmNpi4dZFcio21DzKj%2FRjWmxjH7l8egDyG%2FIgPMY6Ls4IiN7aR1jijYTrBCgPUUHets3BFvqLzHtPFnG3B7%2FYRPnhCLu%2FgzvKN3F8l38KqeTNMHJaxkuhCvEjpFB2SJbi2QZqZZbLj3xASqXoogzbsyPp0Tzp0tH7EKDhPA7H6wwiZukXfFhhlYzP8on9fO2Ajz%2F%2BTDkDjbfWw4KNJ0cFeDsGrUspqQZb5TAKlUge7iOZEc2TZ5uagatSy9Mg08E4nImBSE5QUHDc7Daya1gyqrETMDZBBUHH2RFkGA9qMpEtNrtJ9G%2BPedz%2FpPY1hh9OCp9Pg1BrX97l3SfVzlAMRfNibhywq6qnE35rVnZi%2BEQ1UgBjs9jD%2FQrW49%2FaD0oUDojVeuFFryzRnQxDbKtYgonRcItTvLT5Y0xaK9P0u6H1197%2FMk3XxmjD9%2Fb%2BvBjqxAQWWkKiIxpC1oHEWK9Jt8UdJ39xszDBGpBqjB6Tvt5ePAXSyX8np%2FrBi%2BAPx06O0%2Ba7pU4NmH800EVXxxhgfj9nMw3CeoUIdxorVKtU2Mxw%2FLaAiPgxPS4rqkt65NF7eQYfegcSYDTm2Z%2BHPbz9HfCaVZ28Zqeko6sR%2F29ML4bguqVvHAM4mWPLNDXH33mjG%2BuzLi8e1BF7tNveg2X9G%2FRdcMkojwKYbu6xN3M6aX2alQg%3D%3D&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=1e8235d885f1d61529b7d6b23ea3a0780c300c91d86e925dd8310d5b661ddbe2) show-casing the exploit:
## Impact
Denial of service by crashing the nodejs client when attempting to parse a tar archive, make it run out of heap memory and consuming server CPU and memory resources
## Report resources
[payload.txt](https://hackerone-us-west-2-production-attachments.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/1e83ayb5dd3350fvj3gst0mqixwk?response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3D%22payload.txt%22%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27payload.txt&response-content-type=text%2Fplain&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAQGK6FURQSWWGDXHA%2F20240312%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240312T080103Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEDcaCXVzLXdlc3QtMiJHMEUCID3xYDc6emXVPOg8iVR5dVk0u3gguTPIDJ0OIE%2BKxj17AiEAi%2BGiay1gGMWhH%2F031fvMYnSsa8U7CnpZpxvFAYqNRwgqsQUIQBADGgwwMTM2MTkyNzQ4NDkiDAaj6OgUL3gg4hhLLCqOBUUrOgWSqaK%2FmxN6nKRvB4Who3LIyzswFKm9LV94GiSVFP3zXYA480voCmAHTg7eBL7%2BrYgV2RtXbhF4aCFMCN3qu7GeXkIdH7xwVMi9zXHkekviSKZ%2FsZtVVjn7RFqOCKhJl%2FCoiLQJuDuju%2FtfdTGZbEbGsPgKHoILYbRp81K51zeRL21okjsOehmypkZzq%2BoGrXIX0ynPOKujxw27uqdF4T%2BF9ynodq01vGgwgVBEjHojc4OKOfr1oW5b%2FtGVV59%2BOBVI1hqIKHRG0Ed4SWmp%2BLd1hazGuZPvp52szmegnOj5qr3ubppnKL242bX%2FuAnQKzKK0HpwolqXjsuEeFeM85lxhqHV%2B1BJqaqSHHDa0HUMLZistMRshRlntuchcFQCR6HBa2c8PSnhpVC31zMzvYMfKsI12h4HB6l%2FudrmNrvmH4LmNpi4dZFcio21DzKj%2FRjWmxjH7l8egDyG%2FIgPMY6Ls4IiN7aR1jijYTrBCgPUUHets3BFvqLzHtPFnG3B7%2FYRPnhCLu%2FgzvKN3F8l38KqeTNMHJaxkuhCvEjpFB2SJbi2QZqZZbLj3xASqXoogzbsyPp0Tzp0tH7EKDhPA7H6wwiZukXfFhhlYzP8on9fO2Ajz%2F%2BTDkDjbfWw4KNJ0cFeDsGrUspqQZb5TAKlUge7iOZEc2TZ5uagatSy9Mg08E4nImBSE5QUHDc7Daya1gyqrETMDZBBUHH2RFkGA9qMpEtNrtJ9G%2BPedz%2FpPY1hh9OCp9Pg1BrX97l3SfVzlAMRfNibhywq6qnE35rVnZi%2BEQ1UgBjs9jD%2FQrW49%2FaD0oUDojVeuFFryzRnQxDbKtYgonRcItTvLT5Y0xaK9P0u6H1197%2FMk3XxmjD9%2Fb%2BvBjqxAQWWkKiIxpC1oHEWK9Jt8UdJ39xszDBGpBqjB6Tvt5ePAXSyX8np%2FrBi%2BAPx06O0%2Ba7pU4NmH800EVXxxhgfj9nMw3CeoUIdxorVKtU2Mxw%2FLaAiPgxPS4rqkt65NF7eQYfegcSYDTm2Z%2BHPbz9HfCaVZ28Zqeko6sR%2F29ML4bguqVvHAM4mWPLNDXH33mjG%2BuzLi8e1BF7tNveg2X9G%2FRdcMkojwKYbu6xN3M6aX2alQg%3D%3D&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=bad9fe731f05a63a950f99828125653a8c1254750fe0ca7be882e89ecdd449ae)
[archeive.tar.gz](https://hackerone-us-west-2-production-attachments.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ymkuh4xnfdcf1soeyi7jc2x4yt2i?response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3D%22archive.tar.gz%22%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27archive.tar.gz&response-content-type=application%2Fx-tar&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAQGK6FURQSWWGDXHA%2F20240312%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240312T080103Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEDcaCXVzLXdlc3QtMiJHMEUCID3xYDc6emXVPOg8iVR5dVk0u3gguTPIDJ0OIE%2BKxj17AiEAi%2BGiay1gGMWhH%2F031fvMYnSsa8U7CnpZpxvFAYqNRwgqsQUIQBADGgwwMTM2MTkyNzQ4NDkiDAaj6OgUL3gg4hhLLCqOBUUrOgWSqaK%2FmxN6nKRvB4Who3LIyzswFKm9LV94GiSVFP3zXYA480voCmAHTg7eBL7%2BrYgV2RtXbhF4aCFMCN3qu7GeXkIdH7xwVMi9zXHkekviSKZ%2FsZtVVjn7RFqOCKhJl%2FCoiLQJuDuju%2FtfdTGZbEbGsPgKHoILYbRp81K51zeRL21okjsOehmypkZzq%2BoGrXIX0ynPOKujxw27uqdF4T%2BF9ynodq01vGgwgVBEjHojc4OKOfr1oW5b%2FtGVV59%2BOBVI1hqIKHRG0Ed4SWmp%2BLd1hazGuZPvp52szmegnOj5qr3ubppnKL242bX%2FuAnQKzKK0HpwolqXjsuEeFeM85lxhqHV%2B1BJqaqSHHDa0HUMLZistMRshRlntuchcFQCR6HBa2c8PSnhpVC31zMzvYMfKsI12h4HB6l%2FudrmNrvmH4LmNpi4dZFcio21DzKj%2FRjWmxjH7l8egDyG%2FIgPMY6Ls4IiN7aR1jijYTrBCgPUUHets3BFvqLzHtPFnG3B7%2FYRPnhCLu%2FgzvKN3F8l38KqeTNMHJaxkuhCvEjpFB2SJbi2QZqZZbLj3xASqXoogzbsyPp0Tzp0tH7EKDhPA7H6wwiZukXfFhhlYzP8on9fO2Ajz%2F%2BTDkDjbfWw4KNJ0cFeDsGrUspqQZb5TAKlUge7iOZEc2TZ5uagatSy9Mg08E4nImBSE5QUHDc7Daya1gyqrETMDZBBUHH2RFkGA9qMpEtNrtJ9G%2BPedz%2FpPY1hh9OCp9Pg1BrX97l3SfVzlAMRfNibhywq6qnE35rVnZi%2BEQ1UgBjs9jD%2FQrW49%2FaD0oUDojVeuFFryzRnQxDbKtYgonRcItTvLT5Y0xaK9P0u6H1197%2FMk3XxmjD9%2Fb%2BvBjqxAQWWkKiIxpC1oHEWK9Jt8UdJ39xszDBGpBqjB6Tvt5ePAXSyX8np%2FrBi%2BAPx06O0%2Ba7pU4NmH800EVXxxhgfj9nMw3CeoUIdxorVKtU2Mxw%2FLaAiPgxPS4rqkt65NF7eQYfegcSYDTm2Z%2BHPbz9HfCaVZ28Zqeko6sR%2F29ML4bguqVvHAM4mWPLNDXH33mjG%2BuzLi8e1BF7tNveg2X9G%2FRdcMkojwKYbu6xN3M6aX2alQg%3D%3D&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=5e2c0d4b4de40373ac0fe91908c2659141a6dd4ab850271cc26042a3885c82ea)
## Note
This report was originally reported to GitHub bug bounty program, they asked me to report it to you a month ago
Advisory Timeline
- First published March 22, 2024 (934 days ago).
- Last revised September 10, 2026 — 901 days after initial publication.
Remediation
Upgrade to the fixed version using your package manager.
npm
Update node-tar to 6.2.1 or laternpm install node-tar@6.2.1
npm
Update tar to 6.2.1 or laternpm install tar@6.2.1
After upgrading, run your dependency scanner again to confirm the vulnerability is resolved.
Affected Packages (2)
Affects 1 ecosystem: npm (2).
Vulnerability Classification
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers for this vulnerability type.
- CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource ConsumptionMITRE
CVSS Score Breakdown
What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 6.5 score means for each attack dimension.
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
References
- https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/security/advisories/GHSA-f5x3-32g6-xq36WEB
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-28863ADVISORY
- https://github.com/isaacs/node-tar/commit/fe8cd57da5686f8695415414bda49206a545f7f7WEB
- https://github.com/isaacs/node-tarPACKAGE
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240524-0005WEB
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2024-28863?
- Denial of service while parsing a tar file due to lack of folders count validation This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of MEDIUM (CVSS score: 6.5/10).
- How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2024-28863?
- CVE-2024-28863 affects node-tar and tar. It has a 0.4% probability of exploitation within 30 days (EPSS score). Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2024-28863 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.
Severity & Exploitability
CVSS Score
6.5
Exploitation requires specific conditions or has limited impact. Remediate within weeks.
EPSS Score (30-day exploit probability)
0.45%
Higher than 63% of vulnerabilities
This is an above-median EPSS score — 63.4% of tracked vulnerabilities score at or below it, putting its exploitation likelihood in the upper half of the tracked corpus.
Also Known As
GHSA-f5x3-32g6-xq36
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