diff -r 031fc0231f3d Lib/tarfile.py
--- a/Lib/tarfile.py	Thu Jan 15 22:53:21 2015 +0100
+++ b/Lib/tarfile.py	Mon Jan 19 10:25:16 2015 +0100
@@ -2177,6 +2177,10 @@
         try:
             # For systems that support symbolic and hard links.
             if tarinfo.issym():
+                # a link 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 031fc0231f3d Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py	Thu Jan 15 22:53:21 2015 +0100
+++ b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py	Mon Jan 19 10:25:16 2015 +0100
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 
 import unittest
 import tarfile
+import tempfile
 
 from test import support, script_helper
 
@@ -2167,6 +2168,66 @@
         self._test_partial_input("r:bz2")
 
 
+import contextlib       
+@support.skip_unless_symlink
+class TestTarfileLinkExtract(unittest.TestCase):
+    """Regression test for #23228"""
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.tempdirs = [tempfile.mkdtemp()]
+        self.cwd = os.getcwd()
+        os.chdir(self.tempdirs[0])
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        os.chdir(self.cwd)
+        for tmpdir in self.tempdirs:
+            support.rmtree(tmpdir)
+
+    @contextlib.contextmanager
+    def tempdir(self):
+        tmp = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+        self.tempdirs.append(tmp)
+        cwd = os.getcwd()
+        try:
+            os.chdir(tmp)
+            yield
+        finally:
+            os.chdir(cwd)
+            
+    def _make_tarfile_with_symlink_cycle(self):
+        with self.tempdir():
+            os.symlink("run", "run")
+            tarname = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "lala.tar")
+            with tarfile.open(tarname, "w") as w:
+                w.add(".")
+        return tarname
+
+    def test_unpack_cycle(self):
+        # cycle in tar and on disk
+        os.symlink("run", "run")
+        with tarfile.open(self._make_tarfile_with_symlink_cycle()) as tar:
+            tar.extractall(".")
+        self.assertEqual(os.readlink("run"), "run")
+        
+    def _make_tarfile_with_broken_symlink(self):
+        with self.tempdir():
+            os.makedirs("var")
+            os.symlink("/run", "var/run")
+            tarname = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "lala.tar")
+            with tarfile.open(tarname, "w") as w:
+                w.add(".")
+        return tarname
+
+    def test_tarfile_crash(self):
+        os.makedirs("var")
+        os.symlink("/run", "./var/run")
+        tarname = self._make_tarfile_with_broken_symlink()
+        with tarfile.open(tarname, "r") as r:
+            r.extractall(".")
+        self.assertTrue(os.path.lexists("./var/run"))
+        self.assertEqual(os.readlink("./var/run"), "/run")
+
+
 def setUpModule():
     support.unlink(TEMPDIR)
     os.makedirs(TEMPDIR)