CVE-2024-53866
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Elevated risk57th percentile - higher than 57% of all known CVEs
Summary
The package manager pnpm prior to version 9.15.0 mishandles overrides and global cache. Overrides from one workspace leak into npm metadata saved in global cache, potentially leading to unauthorized code execution in other workspaces.
Risk Assessment
Loss of global state integrity can enable arbitrary code execution during installs, posing a serious security threat to the organization.
Recommendation
It is recommended to upgrade to version 9.15.0 or use separate cache and store directories in each workspace as a temporary workaround.
Original NVD description (English source)
The package manager pnpm prior to version 9.15.0 seems to mishandle overrides and global cache: Overrides from one workspace leak into npm metadata saved in global cache; npm metadata from global cache affects other workspaces; and installs by default don't revalidate the data (including on first lockfile generation). This can make workspace A (even running with `ignore-scripts=true`) posion global cache and execute scripts in workspace B. Users generally expect `ignore-scripts` to be sufficient to prevent immediate code execution on install (e.g. when the tree is just repacked/bundled without executing it). Here, that expectation is broken. Global state integrity is lost via operations that one would expect to be secure, enabling subsequently running arbitrary code execution on installs. Version 9.15.0 fixes the issue. As a work-around, use separate cache and store dirs in each workspace.