diff --git a/pkg/build/nodeimage/internal/kube/tar.go b/pkg/build/nodeimage/internal/kube/tar.go
index edb1b1a06b..f4201b2fff 100644
--- a/pkg/build/nodeimage/internal/kube/tar.go
+++ b/pkg/build/nodeimage/internal/kube/tar.go
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"io"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
-
+	"strings"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kind/pkg/log"
 )
 
@@ -40,13 +40,22 @@ func extractTarball(tarPath, destDirectory string, logger log.Logger) (err error
 			continue
 		}
 
+		// Sanitize and validate archive entry path to prevent Zip Slip (directory traversal)
+		cleanDestDirectory := filepath.Clean(destDirectory)
+		targetPath := filepath.Join(cleanDestDirectory, hdr.Name)
+		cleanTargetPath := filepath.Clean(targetPath)
+		// Ensure that the resulting path is within destDirectory
+		if !strings.HasPrefix(cleanTargetPath, cleanDestDirectory+string(os.PathSeparator)) && cleanTargetPath != cleanDestDirectory {
+			return fmt.Errorf("illegal file path in archive: %s", hdr.Name)
+		}
+
 		if err := os.MkdirAll(
-			filepath.Join(destDirectory, filepath.Dir(hdr.Name)), os.FileMode(0o755),
+			filepath.Dir(cleanTargetPath), os.FileMode(0o755),
 		); err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("creating image directory structure: %w", err)
 		}
 
-		f, err := os.Create(filepath.Join(destDirectory, hdr.Name))
+		f, err := os.Create(cleanTargetPath)
 		if err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("creating image layer file: %w", err)
 		}
diff --git a/pkg/cluster/internal/logs/logs.go b/pkg/cluster/internal/logs/logs.go
index 28f4c28b93..0701fd285c 100644
--- a/pkg/cluster/internal/logs/logs.go
+++ b/pkg/cluster/internal/logs/logs.go
@@ -58,6 +58,11 @@ func DumpDir(logger log.Logger, node nodes.Node, nodeDir, hostDir string) (err e
 // untar reads the tar file from r and writes it into dir.
 func untar(logger log.Logger, r io.Reader, dir string) (err error) {
 	tr := tar.NewReader(r)
+	// Ensure target dir is absolute and cleaned
+	dirAbs, err := filepath.Abs(dir)
+	if err != nil {
+		return errors.Wrapf(err, "could not get absolute path for extraction dir: %v", err)
+	}
 	for {
 		f, err := tr.Next()
 
@@ -74,11 +79,26 @@ func untar(logger log.Logger, r io.Reader, dir string) (err error) {
 		}
 
 		rel := filepath.FromSlash(f.Name)
-		abs := filepath.Join(dir, rel)
+		// Compute absolute extraction path
+		abs := filepath.Join(dirAbs, rel)
+		absClean, err := filepath.Abs(abs)
+		if err != nil {
+			return errors.Wrapf(err, "could not get absolute path for extraction file: %v", err)
+		}
+		// Path traversal check: absClean must be within dirAbs
+		// Ensure dirAbs ends with a separator to prevent prefix matching issues
+		dirAbsWithSep := dirAbs
+		if !filepath.HasSuffix(dirAbs, string(os.PathSeparator)) {
+			dirAbsWithSep = dirAbs + string(os.PathSeparator)
+		}
+		if absClean != dirAbs && !strings.HasPrefix(absClean, dirAbsWithSep) {
+			logger.Warnf("tar entry %q contains path traversal, skipping", f.Name)
+			continue
+		}
 
 		switch f.Typeflag {
 		case tar.TypeReg:
-			wf, err := os.OpenFile(abs, os.O_CREATE|os.O_RDWR, os.FileMode(f.Mode))
+			wf, err := os.OpenFile(absClean, os.O_CREATE|os.O_RDWR, os.FileMode(f.Mode))
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}
@@ -87,14 +107,14 @@ func untar(logger log.Logger, r io.Reader, dir string) (err error) {
 				err = closeErr
 			}
 			if err != nil {
-				return errors.Errorf("error writing to %s: %v", abs, err)
+				return errors.Errorf("error writing to %s: %v", absClean, err)
 			}
 			if n != f.Size {
-				return errors.Errorf("only wrote %d bytes to %s; expected %d", n, abs, f.Size)
+				return errors.Errorf("only wrote %d bytes to %s; expected %d", n, absClean, f.Size)
 			}
 		case tar.TypeDir:
-			if _, err := os.Stat(abs); err != nil {
-				if err := os.MkdirAll(abs, 0755); err != nil {
+			if _, err := os.Stat(absClean); err != nil {
+				if err := os.MkdirAll(absClean, 0755); err != nil {
 					return err
 				}
 			}