diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 118a137..cd38f37 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 node_modules
 test/fixtures/copy
+test/fixtures/invalid
diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index e4c1857..2e1ae6d 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -295,21 +295,28 @@ exports.extract = function (cwd, opts) {
       }, stat)
     }
 
-    mkdirfix(path.dirname(name), {
-      fs: xfs, own: own, uid: header.uid, gid: header.gid
-    }, function (err) {
+    var dir = path.dirname(name)
+
+    validate(xfs, dir, path.join(cwd, '.'), function (err, valid) {
       if (err) return next(err)
+      if (!valid) return next(new Error(dir + ' is not a valid path'))
 
-      switch (header.type) {
-        case 'file': return onfile()
-        case 'link': return onlink()
-        case 'symlink': return onsymlink()
-      }
+      mkdirfix(dir, {
+        fs: xfs, own: own, uid: header.uid, gid: header.gid
+      }, function (err) {
+        if (err) return next(err)
 
-      if (strict) return next(new Error('unsupported type for ' + name + ' (' + header.type + ')'))
+        switch (header.type) {
+          case 'file': return onfile()
+          case 'link': return onlink()
+          case 'symlink': return onsymlink()
+        }
 
-      stream.resume()
-      next()
+        if (strict) return next(new Error('unsupported type for ' + name + ' (' + header.type + ')'))
+
+        stream.resume()
+        next()
+      })
     })
   })
 
@@ -318,6 +325,15 @@ exports.extract = function (cwd, opts) {
   return extract
 }
 
+function validate (fs, name, root, cb) {
+  if (name === root) return cb(null, true)
+  fs.lstat(name, function (err, st) {
+    if (err && err.code !== 'ENOENT') return cb(err)
+    if (err || st.isDirectory()) return validate(fs, path.join(name, '..'), root, cb)
+    cb(null, false)
+  })
+}
+
 function mkdirfix (name, opts, cb) {
   mkdirp(name, {fs: opts.xfs}, function (err, made) {
     if (!err && made && opts.own) {
diff --git a/test/fixtures/invalid.tar b/test/fixtures/invalid.tar
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a645e9c
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/fixtures/invalid.tar differ
diff --git a/test/index.js b/test/index.js
index e9b57be..3129eb7 100644
--- a/test/index.js
+++ b/test/index.js
@@ -292,3 +292,21 @@ test('not finalizing the pack', function (t) {
     t.deepEqual(aFiles, ['hello.txt'])
   }
 })
+
+test('do not extract invalid tar', function (t) {
+  var a = path.join(__dirname, 'fixtures', 'invalid.tar')
+
+  var out = path.join(__dirname, 'fixtures', 'invalid')
+
+  rimraf.sync(out)
+
+  fs.createReadStream(a)
+    .pipe(tar.extract(out))
+    .on('error', function (err) {
+      t.ok(/is not a valid path/i.test(err.message))
+      fs.stat(path.join(out, '../bar'), function (err) {
+        t.ok(err)
+        t.end()
+      })
+    })
+})