Arch Linux: ASA-201611-11 Medium Severity: Tar File Overwrite Issue

Arch Linux Security Advisory ASA-201611-11
=========================================
Severity: Medium
Date    : 2016-11-03
CVE-ID  : CVE-2016-6321
Package : tar
Type    : arbitrary file overwrite
Remote  : Yes
Link    : https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CVE

Summary
======
The package tar before version 1.29-2 is vulnerable to arbitrary file
overwrite.

Resolution
=========
Upgrade to 1.29-2.

# pacman -Syu "tar>=1.29-2"

The problem has been fixed upstream but no release is available yet.

Workaround
=========
None.

Description
==========
The GNU tar archiver attempts to avoid path traversal attacks by
removing offending parts of the element name at extract. This
sanitizing leads to a vulnerability where the attacker can bypass the
path name(s) specified on the command line leading to arbitrary
overwrite of files and directories inside the target directory.

Impact
=====
A remote attacker is able to use a specially crafted tar archive that,
when extracted by the victim, replaces files and directories regardless
of the path name(s) specified.

References
=========
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/51563
https://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Oct/96
https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/commit/?id=7340f67b9860ea053
https://sintonen.fi/advisories/tar-extract-pathname-bypass.txt
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-6321