CVE-2021-39135 Information

Description

@npmcli/arborist the library that calculates dependency trees and manages the node_modules folder hierarchy for the npm command line interface aims to guarantee that package dependency contracts will be met and the extraction of package contents will always be performed into the expected folder. This is accomplished by extracting package contents into a project’s node_modules folder. If the node_modules folder of the root project or any of its dependencies is somehow replaced with a symbolic link it could allow Arborist to write package dependencies to any arbitrary location on the file system. Note that symbolic links contained within package artifact contents are filtered out so another means of creating a node_modules symbolic link would have to be employed. 1. A preinstall script could replace node_modules with a symlink. (This is prevented by using --ignore-scripts.) 2. An attacker could supply the target with a git repository instructing them to run npm install --ignore-scripts in the root. This may be successful because npm install --ignore-scripts is typically not capable of making changes outside of the project directory so it may be deemed safe. This is patched in @npmcli/arborist 2.8.2 which is included in npm v7.20.7 and above. For more information including workarounds please see the referenced GHSA-gmw6-94gg-2rc2.

CVSS Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Reference

https://github.com/npm/arborist/security/advisories/GHSA-gmw6-94gg-2rc2 https://www.npmjs.com/package/@npmcli/arborist https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/pdf/ssa-389290.pdf

Attack Complexity

LOW

Privileges Required

NONE

User Interaction Required

NONE

Scope

REQUIRED

Confidentiality Impact

UNCHANGED

Integrity Impact

HIGH

Availability Impact

HIGH

Base Score

HIGH

Base Severity

7.8