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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-23950

medium Nessus Plugin ID 293776

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

 - Debian Linux - node-tar - node-tar,a Tar for Node.js, has a race condition vulnerability in versions up to and including 7.5.3. This is due to an incomplete handling of Unicode path collisions in the `path- reservations` system. On case-insensitive or normalization-insensitive filesystems (such as macOS APFS, In which it has been tested), the library fails to lock colliding paths (e.g., `` and `ss`), allowing them to be processed in parallel. This bypasses the library's internal concurrency safeguards and permits Symlink Poisoning attacks via race conditions. The library uses a `PathReservations` system to ensure that metadata checks and file operations for the same path are serialized. This prevents race conditions where one entry might clobber another concurrently. This is a Race Condition which enables Arbitrary File Overwrite. This vulnerability affects users and systems using node-tar on macOS (APFS/HFS+). Because of using `NFD` Unicode normalization (in which `` and `ss` are different), conflicting paths do not have their order properly preserved under filesystems that ignore Unicode normalization (e.g., APFS (in which `` causes an inode collision with `ss`)). This enables an attacker to circumvent internal parallelization locks (`PathReservations`) using conflicting filenames within a malicious tar archive. The patch in version 7.5.4 updates `path-reservations.js` to use a normalization form that matches the target filesystem's behavior (e.g., `NFKD`), followed by first `toLocaleLowerCase('en')` and then `toLocaleUpperCase('en')`. As a workaround, users who cannot upgrade promptly, and who are programmatically using `node-tar` to extract arbitrary tarball data should filter out all `SymbolicLink` entries (as npm does) to defend against arbitrary file writes via this file system entry name collision issue. Red Hat Enterprise Linux - node-tar: tar: node-tar: Arbitrary file overwrite via Unicode path collision race condition (CVE-2026-23950)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2026-23950

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-23950

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 293776

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_23950.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 1/20/2026

Updated: 1/20/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.6

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.4

Temporal Score: 3.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-23950

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.9

Temporal Score: 5.4

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit-libs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:sgx-libs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:tdx-qgs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-prometheus, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-packaging-bundler, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-influxdb, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-packaging, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-mssql, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-packaging-bundler, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-stackdriver, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24-libs, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-influxdb, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-elasticsearch, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-docs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-azure-monitor, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit-libs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-opentsdb, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit-docs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:sgx-mpa, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24-full-i18n, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-postgres, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-graphite, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-prometheus, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:tar, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:npm, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-npm, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-packaging, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs22, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-cloudwatch, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:npm, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:14.0, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-postgres, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-stackdriver, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:tdx-qgs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-azure-monitor, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-cloudwatch, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs22, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-opentsdb, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-elasticsearch, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-loki, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:v8-12.4-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-mysql, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-loki, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24-docs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:v8-12.4-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-nodemon, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-docs, cpe:/o:centos:centos:7, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-libs, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:node-tar, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24-docs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24-libs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-libs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-full-i18n, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:sgx-pckid-tool, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-full-i18n, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-npm, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-selinux, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:tar, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:sgx-libs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-selinux, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24-npm, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:sgx-common, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-graphite, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24-full-i18n, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:sgx-common, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-mysql, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24-npm, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-nodemon, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:sgx-pckid-tool, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit-docs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:sgx-mpa, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-mssql

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-23950