CVE-2026-39245

decompress before 4.2.2 contains an improper path containment check that enables directory traversal and arbitrary file write

Medium · published July 9, 2026

CVSS v3.1
6.2
EPSS
0%
Percentile
30.3
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

decompress before 4.2.2 contains an improper path containment check that enables directory traversal and arbitrary file write. The safeMakeDir function (index.js line 29) and the extraction path validation (index.js line 106) use String.indexOf() to verify the resolved path is within the output directory: realDestinationDir.indexOf(realOutputPath) !== 0. This check is flawed because it does not enforce a path separator boundary. For example, "/tmp/app_config".indexOf("/tmp/app") returns 0, incorrectly passing the check even though /tmp/app_config is outside /tmp/app. Combined with the unvalidated symlink creation in the same package, an attacker can write arbitrary files to directories adjacent to the extraction target. This is a bypass of the fix for CVE-2020-12265. The correct check requires appending a path separator: realParentPath.indexOf(realOutputPath + path.sep) !== 0.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
6.2 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00375 · 30.3th percentile
Published
2026-07-09T00:00Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 09 JUL 00:00Z
    decompress before 4.2.2 contains an improper path containment check that enables directory traversal and arbitrary file write
    cvelistv5