tar could be made to overwrite files.
Harry Sintonen discovered that tar incorrectly handled extracting files when path names are specified on the command line. If a user or automated system were tricked into processing a specially crafted archive, an attacker could possibly overwrite arbitrary files.
21 November 2016
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
tar could be made to overwrite files.
Harry Sintonen discovered that tar incorrectly handled extracting files when path names are specified on the command line. If a user or automated system were tricked into processing a specially crafted archive, an attacker could possibly overwrite arbitrary files.
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:
To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.
In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.
Vulmon