diff --git a/Codec/Archive/Tar/Check.hs b/Codec/Archive/Tar/Check.hs
--- a/Codec/Archive/Tar/Check.hs
+++ b/Codec/Archive/Tar/Check.hs
@@ -120,6 +120,15 @@
 checkTarbomb expectedTopDir = checkEntries (checkEntryTarbomb expectedTopDir)
 
 checkEntryTarbomb :: FilePath -> Entry -> Maybe TarBombError
+checkEntryTarbomb _ entry | nonFilesystemEntry = Nothing
+  where
+    -- Ignore some special entries we will not unpack anyway
+    nonFilesystemEntry =
+      case entryContent entry of
+        OtherEntryType 'g' _ _ -> True --PAX global header
+        OtherEntryType 'x' _ _ -> True --PAX individual header
+        _                      -> False
+
 checkEntryTarbomb expectedTopDir entry =
   case FilePath.Native.splitDirectories (entryPath entry) of
     (topDir:_) | topDir == expectedTopDir -> Nothing
diff --git a/changelog.md b/changelog.md
--- a/changelog.md
+++ b/changelog.md
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+0.5.0.3 Duncan Coutts <duncan@community.haskell.org> May 2016
+
+  * Fix tarbomb logic to ignore special PAX entries. Was breaking many
+    valid tarballs. https://github.com/haskell/cabal/issues/3390
+
 0.5.0.2 Duncan Coutts <duncan@community.haskell.org> April 2016
 
   * Fix compatability when using ghc-7.4.x and directory >= 1.2.3
diff --git a/tar.cabal b/tar.cabal
--- a/tar.cabal
+++ b/tar.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:            tar
-version:         0.5.0.2
+version:         0.5.0.3
 license:         BSD3
 license-file:    LICENSE
 author:          Duncan Coutts <duncan@community.haskell.org>