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. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2020-7788 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
ini before 1.3.6 vulnerable to Prototype Pollution via ini.parse
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.
ininpmDescription
This affects the package ini before 1.3.6. 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.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | ini | all versions | 1.3.6 |
Research 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 ini. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
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.
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.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2020-7788 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2020-7788. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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.
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…
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-7788 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2020-7788 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.