Synopsis
The remote Amazon Linux 2023 host is missing a security update.
Description
It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ALAS2023-2026-1466 advisory.
node-tar is a Tar for Node.js. The node-tar library (<= 7.5.2) fails to sanitize the linkpath of Link (hardlink) and SymbolicLink entries when preservePaths is false (the default secure behavior). This allows malicious archives to bypass the extraction root restriction, leading to Arbitrary File Overwrite via hardlinks and Symlink Poisoning via absolute symlink targets. This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.3.
(CVE-2026-23745)
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., `ss` 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 `ss` and `ss` are different), conflicting paths do not have their order properly preserved under filesystems that ignore Unicode normalization (e.g., APFS (in which `ss` 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. (CVE-2026-23950)
node-tar,a Tar for Node.js, contains a vulnerability in versions prior to 7.5.7 where the security check for hardlink entries uses different path resolution semantics than the actual hardlink creation logic.
This mismatch allows an attacker to craft a malicious TAR archive that bypasses path traversal protections and creates hardlinks to arbitrary files outside the extraction directory. Version 7.5.7 contains a fix for the issue. (CVE-2026-24842)
Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the tested product security advisory.
Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.
Solution
Run 'dnf update nodejs24 --releasever 2023.10.20260302' or or 'dnf update --advisory ALAS2023-2026-1466 --releasever 2023.10.20260302' to update your system.
Plugin Details
File Name: al2023_ALAS2023-2026-1466.nasl
Agent: unix
Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus
Risk Information
Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:P/A:N
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N
Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C
Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:P
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:L/VA:N/SC:H/SI:L/SA:N
Vulnerability Information
CPE: p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:v8-13.6-devel, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:nodejs24-debugsource, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:nodejs24-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:nodejs24-full-i18n, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:nodejs24-npm, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:nodejs24-libs-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:nodejs24-docs, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:nodejs24-devel, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:nodejs24-libs, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:nodejs24, cpe:/o:amazon:linux:2023
Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/AmazonLinux/release, Host/AmazonLinux/rpm-list
Exploit Ease: Exploits are available
Patch Publication Date: 3/5/2026
Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/16/2026