CVE-2020-7729 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.1) CWE-1188 vulnerability in grunt. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for grunt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Arbitrary Code Execution in grunt
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
gruntnpmDescription
The package grunt before 1.3.0 are vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution due to the default usage of the function load() instead of its secure replacement safeLoad() of the package js-yaml inside grunt.file.readYAML.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | grunt | all versions | 1.3.0npm install grunt@1.3.0 |
Affected Products
ubuntu linuxcanonicaldebian linuxdebiangruntgruntjsResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for grunt, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update grunt to 1.3.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-7729 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-7729 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.