GHSA-7pqw-9j4j-h8q3 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) Path Traversal vulnerability in extract-zip. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
extract-zip allows arbitrary file writes through symlink archive entries
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-7pqw-9j4j-h8q3.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-7pqw-9j4j-h8q3 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 381,682 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
extract-zipnpmDescription
extract-zip through 2.0.1 containment-checks only the parent directory of each archive entry and never the entry's own final path component, so an archive containing two entries with identical names - a symlink whose target is outside the destination, followed by a regular file - writes through the planted symlink and yields an arbitrary file write outside the destination directory.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | extract-zip | all versions | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for extract-zip, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of extract-zip has shipped for GHSA-7pqw-9j4j-h8q3 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
This is an Important arbitrary file write vulnerability in the `extract-zip` utility. The flaw arises from insufficient validation of archive entries, allowing a remote attacker to write files to arbitrary locations on the system by providing a specially crafted zip archive. This requires user interaction to extract…
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-7pqw-9j4j-h8q3 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-7pqw-9j4j-h8q3 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.