GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9 uv has differential in tar extraction with PAX headers
An attacker can craft a malicious tar archive that extracts differently in uv, potentially leading to code execution during installation.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9?
GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9 is a vulnerability in uv, published on 21 Oct 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
Impact
In versions 0.9.4 and earlier of uv, tar archives containing PAX headers with file size overrides were not handled properly. As a result, an attacker could contrive a source distribution (as a tar archive) that would extract differently when installed via uv versus other Python package installers.
The underlying parsing differential here originates with astral-tokio-tar, which disclosed this vulnerability as CVE-2025-62518.
In practice, the impact of this vulnerability is low: only source distributions can be formatted as tar archives, and source distributions execute arbitrary code at build/installation time by definition. Consequently, a parser differential in tar extraction is strictly less powerful than the capabilities already exposed to an attacker who has the ability to control source distributions.
However, this particular source of malleability in source distributions is unintentional and not operating by design, and therefore we consider it a vulnerability despite its overlap in capabilities with intended behavior.
Patches
Versions 0.9.5 and newer of uv address the vulnerability above. Users should upgrade to 0.9.5 or newer.
Workarounds
Users are advised to upgrade to version 0.9.5 or newer to address this advisory.
Users should experience no breaking changes as a result of the patch above.
References
- See CVE-2025-62518 for the corresponding advisory against astral-tokio-tar
Which versions are affected by GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9?
2 open source packages ship an affected version, including uv.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
uv PyPI | All versions | 0.9.5 |
uv PyPI | All versions | 0.9.5 |
How do I fix GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9?
Upgrade uv to 0.9.5 or later.
Is GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of GHSA-w476-p2h3-79g9 in the wild and no public exploit code.