Symlink Attack Affecting pip package, versions [0,25.2)

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Symlink Attack via _untar_without_filter when used with Python versions that do not implement PEP 706 (<3.9.17, <3.10.12, <3.11.4, or <3.12). An attacker can write files outside the target directory by enticing the user to install a tar archive containing malicious symbolic links that are not properly validated to ensure they point within the intended extraction directory.

Note: This is only exploitable through the fallback tar extraction logic used with non-PEP 706 compliant Python versions; when using a Python version that implements PEP 706, pip doesn't use the vulnerable fallback code.

This vulnerability can be mitigated by upgrading to a Python version that implements PEP 706, e.g., Python >=3.9.17, >=3.10.12, >=3.11.4, or >=3.12, or manually inspecting source distributions before installation.

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