Security advisory
decompress before 4.2.2 allows arbitrary symlink creation during archive extraction. When processing symlink entries (type === 'symlink'), the x.linkname field from the archive is passed directly to fs.symlink() without validation (index.js line 121). The preventWritingThroughSymlink check on line 98 only applies to file entries, not symlink creation. An attacker can craft an archive with symlink entries pointing to sensitive files outside the extraction directory (e.g., /etc/passwd), enabling information disclosure when the application reads the extracted contents.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2026-39246
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 3 Nov 2026, 09:54 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
decompress before 4.2.2 allows arbitrary symlink creation during archive extraction. When processing symlink entries (type === 'symlink'), the x.linkname field from the archive is passed directly to fs.symlink() without validation (index.js line 121). The preventWritingThroughSymlink check on line 98 only applies to file entries, not symlink creation. An attacker can craft an archive with symlink entries pointing to sensitive files outside the extraction directory (e.g., /etc/passwd), enabling information disclosure when the application reads the extracted contents.
osv:CVE-2026-39246
Complete source record
{
"id": "19d4ed7ba66dedfc4ae21db21c5777e9d5b2bb23f8bf235cc05d8f656c56ce93",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-39246",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2026-39246",
"summary": "decompress before 4.2.2 allows arbitrary symlink creation during archive extraction. When processing symlink entries (type === 'symlink'), the x.linkname field from the archive is passed directly to fs.symlink() without validation (index.js line 121). The preventWritingThroughSymlink check on line 98 only applies to file entries, not symlink creation. An attacker can craft an archive with symlink entries pointing to sensitive files outside the extraction directory (e.g., /etc/passwd), enabling information disclosure when the application reads the extracted contents.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-39246",
"products": [],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2026-39246",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2026-39246"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/kevva/decompress",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"last_affected": "84a8c1046946add1a6ae01c54dbebf312e4ffc85"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:decompress_project:decompress:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"last_affected": "4.2.1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
"v4.2.1",
"v4.2.0",
"v4.1.0",
"v4.0.0",
"v3.0.0"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-39246.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:27.960205265Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://www.npmjs.com/package/decompress",
"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/39xxx/CVE-2026-39246.json",
"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-39246",
"https://github.com/kevva/decompress/issues/114",
"https://github.com/kevva/decompress"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"cna_assigner": "mitre",
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"fixed": "4.2.2"
}
],
"source": "DESCRIPTION"
}
]
}
],
"osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/39xxx/CVE-2026-39246.json"
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2026-39246",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 494340,
"published_at": "2026-07-09T00:00:00+00:00"
}