CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2026-53486 — The decompress package for Node.js extracts archives

Critical CVSS 9.1

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.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.1 (3.1)
Published
2026-07-14
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
javascript/npm
Weaknesses
CWE-22, CWE-59, CWE-732

Affected products

No browser-safe affected-product rows are available.

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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