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CRITICAL severity

CVE-2020-7788 — ini

CRITICALFix: npm/ini@56d2805

CVE-2020-7788 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-1321 vulnerability in ini. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for ini — see the affected versions and patch details below.

ini before 1.3.6 vulnerable to Prototype Pollution via ini.parse

Also known asGHSA-qqgx-2p2h-9c37
Published
Updated
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
1 known
Exploitation data as of Oct 9, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
3.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs89th percentile — riskier than 89% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%1.55%3.11%4.66%0.3%3.7%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2020-7788 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

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.

4Kother npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream
ininpm
155.8Mdownloads / week

Description

Overview

The ini npm package before version 1.3.6 has a Prototype Pollution vulnerability.

If an attacker submits a malicious INI file to an application that parses it with ini.parse, they will pollute the prototype on the application. This can be exploited further depending on the context.

Patches

This has been patched in 1.3.6.

Steps to reproduce

payload.ini

[__proto__]
polluted = "polluted"

poc.js:

var fs = require('fs')
var ini = require('ini')

var parsed = ini.parse(fs.readFileSync('./payload.ini', 'utf-8'))
console.log(parsed)
console.log(parsed.__proto__)
console.log(polluted)

> node poc.js
{}
{ polluted: 'polluted' }
{ polluted: 'polluted' }
polluted

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
📦npminiall versions1.3.6npm install ini@1.3.6

Affected Products

2 products · 2 configurations
OS
debian linuxdebian
1 version
9.0
Application
iniini_project
< 1.3.6
range
Exploits & PoCs
1

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

This affects the package ini before 1.3.6. If an attacker submits a mali…

snyk.ioNVDJul 2021

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ini, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update ini to 1.3.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-7788 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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.

Fixing This On Your OS

If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.

Red HatModerate

Node.JS packages in Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Software Collections included the vulnerable dependency packaged in "nodejs-npm" component. Processing malicious files using npm could potentially trigger this vulnerability. The "ini" package bundled with npm was not in the library path where it could be…

ProductFixed inAdvisory
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8nodejs:10-8030020210118191659.229f0a1cRHSA-2021:0548
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8nodejs:12-8030020210129141730.229f0a1cRHSA-2021:0549
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8nodejs:14-8030020210126165503.229f0a1cRHSA-2021:0551
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8nodejs:16-8050020211206113934.c5368500RHSA-2021:5171
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8nodejs:14-8050020211213115342.c5368500RHSA-2022:0350
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Extended Update Supportnodejs:14-8040020211213111158.522a0ee4RHSA-2022:0246
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9nodejs-nodemon-0:2.0.19-1.el9_0RHSA-2022:6595
Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7rh-nodejs14-nodejs-0:14.15.4-2.el7RHSA-2021:0421

Frequently Asked Questions

### Overview The `ini` npm package before version 1.3.6 has a Prototype Pollution vulnerability. If an attacker submits a malicious INI file to an application that parses it with `ini.parse`, they will pollute the prototype on the application. This can be exploited further depending on the context. ### Patches This has been patched in 1.3.6. ### Steps to reproduce payload.ini ``` [__proto__] polluted = "polluted" ``` poc.js: ``` var fs = require('fs') var ini = require('ini') var parsed = ini.parse(fs.readFileSync('./payload.ini', 'utf-8')) console.log(parsed) console.log(parsed.__proto
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2020-7788: ini — Fixed in 1.3.6