CVE-2026-59873
node-tar decompression bomb can exhaust disk/CPU during archive extraction
Is CVE-2026-59873 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-59873 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.56% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-59873?
CVE-2026-59873 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.2. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-59873?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-59873. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-59873 affect?
CVE-2026-59873 affects node-tar < 7.5.19, Node.js applications using node-tar, npm packages vendoring node-tar. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-59873?
Upgrade node-tar to >=7.5.19 and enforce archive size/entry limits
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Crafted tar/gzip triggers decompression bomb in node-tar, exhausting disk and CPU during extraction, causing denial-of-service and potential data loss.
Immediate action required
- affected< 7.5.19
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.