CVE-2022-29256 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-77 vulnerability in sharp. A fix is available for sharp — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Possible vulnerability at 'npm install' time in sharp if an attacker has control over build environment
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-29256 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
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.
sharpnpmDescription
sharp is an application for Node.js image processing. Prior to version 0.30.5, there is a possible vulnerability in logic that is run only at npm install time when installing versions of sharp prior to the latest v0.30.5. If an attacker has the ability to set the value of the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable in a build environment then they might be able to use this to inject an arbitrary command at npm install time. This is not part of any runtime code, does not affect Windows users at all, and is unlikely to affect anyone that already cares about the security of their build environment. This problem is fixed in version 0.30.5.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | sharp | all versions | 0.30.5npm install sharp@0.30.5 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for sharp, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update sharp to 0.30.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-29256 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2022-29256 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-29256. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-29256 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-29256 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.