CVE-2026-18508

A flaw was found in GNU tar. When extracting an archive with the --one-top-level option, hardlink targets are not confined to the designated top-level directory and may resolve relative to the extraction working directory. A crafted archive can create hardlinks that escape the intended boundary and, when combined with a preexisting symbolic link under the working directory, may allow writing outside that boundary during a single extraction.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is affected. This issue only applies when the --one-top-level option is used to extract an untrusted archive. Default tar extraction without --one-top-level is not impacted by this specific boundary failure. Users should avoid using --one-top-level as the sole confinement mechanism for untrusted archives until fixed packages are available.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Do not use --one-top-level as the sole confinement mechanism when extracting untrusted archives. Prefer extracting as an unprivileged user into a freshly created empty directory after changing into that directory (mkdir and cd), avoid extracting as root from sensitive working directories such as /, and follow the GNU tar security guidance for untrusted archives.