Skip to main content
Version: 0.2.10

Guide: Safe archives (tar/tgz/zip)

Archive extraction is a classic footgun: inputs are often untrusted and the unsafe default is to “just write files”.

X07’s canonical approach is safe-by-default archive inspection/extraction with:

  • strict path policies (no traversal)
  • explicit size/entry caps
  • structured, machine-readable issues with rewrite hints

This guide is built around the external package ext-archive-c and repo-pinned profiles under arch/archive/.

Canonical workflow​

1) Pin a safe profile in arch/​

Use the v1 safe profiles as your starting point:

  • arch/archive/profiles/tar_extract_safe_v1.archive.json
  • arch/archive/profiles/tgz_extract_safe_v1.archive.json
  • arch/archive/profiles/zip_extract_safe_v1.archive.json

Lock the contract surface:

x07 arch check --write-lock

2) Use the hardened extract/list helpers​

High-level entry point (built-in safe profiles):

  • std.archive.safe_extract_v1(out_root, bytes, profile_id)

Arch-driven entry points (recommended for production repos that want pinned limits/policies):

  • std.archive.tar.extract_tree_from_arch_v1(profile_id, bytes)
  • std.archive.tgz.extract_tree_from_arch_v1(profile_id, bytes)
  • std.archive.zip.extract_tree_from_arch_v1(profile_id, bytes)

OS streaming extract-to-fs (recommended for large archives):

  • std.archive.extract_os.extract_to_fs_path_from_arch_v1(profile_id, out_root, path, caps_read, caps_write)

3) Treat failures as data (structured issues)​

Doc-envelope entry points (... -> bytes) return an std.doc envelope. The *_from_arch_v1 helpers return result_bytes (payload bytes on ok; deterministic error code on err).

  • On success: std.doc.payload_v1 is canonical JSON describing extracted/listed entries.
  • On failure: std.doc.error_msg_v1 is canonical JSON with schema x07.archive.issue@0.1.0, including:
    • expected_form
    • rewrite_hint

Runnable example:

  • docs/examples/agent-gate/archive-safe-extract/zip-hello/
  • docs/examples/agent-gate/archive-extract-to-fs/zip-hello/
  • API reference: docs/archive/archive-v1.md

Threat model summary​

The minimal threats you must assume for archives sourced from users, the network, CI artifacts, or third-party vendors:

  • Path traversal: ../..., leading /, backslashes, non-UTF8 names.
  • Resource bombs: too many entries, too-large files, high expansion ratios (especially tgz).
  • Malformed containers: truncated headers, invalid central directory, checksum mismatches.

Secure extraction checklist​

Before writing any extracted data to disk:

  • Enforce a strict relative path policy (reject absolute paths and .. segments).
  • Cap: max_entries, max_total_out_bytes, max_file_bytes.
  • For tgz, cap: max_inflate_out_bytes and max_inflate_ratio_x100.
  • Refuse links (symlinks/hardlinks) unless you have an explicit, audited policy.
  • Treat archive metadata (modes/ownership/timestamps) as untrusted inputs.
  • Write only under a dedicated output root and do not follow existing symlinks.

Expert appendix​

Corpus regression suite​

The repo includes a small security corpus under tests/corpora/archive/ and a CI gate:

./scripts/ci/check_archive_corpus.sh

It covers:

  • zip-slip path traversal attempts
  • malformed ZIP central directory
  • TAR directory entries + traversal attempts
  • TGZ inflate ratio limits

When to prefer *_from_arch_v1​

Prefer *_from_arch_v1 in production code when you want:

  • limits and path policy treated as part of the repo contract (arch/ + lockfiles)
  • x07 arch check to enforce the allowed archive operations

Use std.archive.safe_extract_v1 for:

  • quick audit tooling
  • small internal utilities
  • cases where hardcoded v1 safe defaults are sufficient