High [CVE-2026-53486] @xhmikosr/decompress: Decompress: Arbitrary file read/write via crafted archive extraction
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-53486 affecting Red Hat Hardened Images, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.
Aggregated and source-linked by VulniPulse. Data sources, validation and limitations.
VulniPulse record published Record updated
Summary
The decompress package for Node.js extracts archives. Prior to 10.2.1 and 11.1.3, archive extraction can create files and links outside the target directory.
When extracting an archive to a directory, a crafted archive can read or write files outside that directory because hardlink and symlink entries are created without checking where targets point, path containment used a string prefix comparison, and file modes failed to remove setuid, setgid, or sticky bits.
This issue is fixed in @xhmikosr/decompress versions 10.2.1 and 11.1.3. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by crafting a malicious archive.
This can result in high confidentiality and integrity impacts. Red Hat Build of Keycloak, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (VolSync), Red Hat Hardened Images (dotnet8.0), and the Fedora/EPEL yarnpkg packages bundle the original, unmaintained npm decompress package (version 4.2.1 or earlier), which does not receive an upstream fix for this issue.
Red Hat rates this issue with a CVSS score of 8.1 (Important), reflecting that in these products archive extraction is performed on locally supplied or build-time archives rather than automatically on arbitrary network-supplied input, which Red Hat scores as requiring user interaction (UI:R) in contrast to the upstream CVSS score of 9.1. Weakness: CWE-22.
Red Hat lists Red Hat Build of Keycloak as not affected.
Is CVE-2026-53486 exploited?
No exploitation is reported in the sources VulniPulse tracks: CVE-2026-53486 is not in the CISA KEV catalog (checked ) and this advisory does not report exploitation. That is not proof the vulnerability cannot be exploited.
How do I fix CVE-2026-53486?
Upgrade to a fixed release named by Red Hat:
- 10.2.1
- 11.1.3
- dotnet8-0-main-8.0.128-1.2.hum1
- RHSA-2026:40415
Confirm against the vendor advisory before you patch.
- < 10.2.1
- < 11.1.3
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 6 days ago·verify at source
- 10.2.1
- 11.1.3
- dotnet8-0-main-8.0.128-1.2.hum1
- RHSA-2026:40415
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 6 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation checklist
- There is no upstream fix for the original, unmaintained decompress npm package used by these components (last release 4.2.1). The maintained fork, @xhmikosr/decompress, resolves this issue in versions 10.2.1 and 11.1.3, but is not used by any affected Red Hat component. As a general mitigation, only extract archives from trusted sources with the affected tooling, run extraction as a non-root user to prevent the setuid/setgid/sticky-bit issue from creating a privileged file, and verify that any symlinks or hardlinks produced by extraction resolve inside the intended output directory.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 6 days ago·verify at source
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