diff -r 4a55b98314cd Lib/tarfile.py
--- a/Lib/tarfile.py	Mon Jan 12 21:03:41 2015 +0100
+++ b/Lib/tarfile.py	Tue Jan 13 10:10:42 2015 +0100
@@ -2177,6 +2177,10 @@
         try:
             # For systems that support symbolic and hard links.
             if tarinfo.issym():
+                # a symlink with that name exists already, we need to replace
+                # it with our version (see #23228)
+                if os.path.lexists(targetpath):
+                    os.remove(targetpath)
                 os.symlink(tarinfo.linkname, targetpath)
             else:
                 # See extract().
diff -r 4a55b98314cd Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py	Mon Jan 12 21:03:41 2015 +0100
+++ b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py	Tue Jan 13 10:10:42 2015 +0100
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 
 import unittest
 import tarfile
+import tempfile
 
 from test import support, script_helper
 
@@ -2167,6 +2168,31 @@
         self._test_partial_input("r:bz2")
 
 
+@unittest.skipIf(hasattr(os, "link"), "requires os.link to be missing")
+class TestTarfileLinkExtract(unittest.TestCase):
+    """Regression test for #23228"""
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.tempdir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+        self.cwd = os.getcwd()
+        os.chdir(self.tempdir)
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        os.chdir(self.cwd)
+        support.rmtree(self.tempdir)
+
+    def test_tarfile_crash(self):
+        os.mkdir("run")
+        os.mkdir("var")
+        os.symlink("run", "var/run")
+        tarname = "lala.tar"
+        with tarfile.open(tarname, "w") as w:
+            w.add("run")
+            w.add("var")
+        with tarfile.open(tarname, "r") as r:
+            r.extractall(".")
+    
+
 def setUpModule():
     support.unlink(TEMPDIR)
     os.makedirs(TEMPDIR)