GHSA-hj9c-8jmm-8c52 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Information Exposure vulnerability in npm. A fix is available for npm — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Packing does not respect root-level ignore files in workspaces
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-hj9c-8jmm-8c52.
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
GHSA-hj9c-8jmm-8c52 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.
npmnpmDescription
Impact
npm pack ignores root-level .gitignore & .npmignore file exclusion directives when run in a workspace or with a workspace flag (ie. --workspaces, --workspace=<name>). Anyone who has run npm pack or npm publish with workspaces, as of v7.9.0 & v7.13.0 respectively, may be affected and have published files into the npm registry they did not intend to include.
Patch
- Upgrade to the latest, patched version of
npm(v8.11.0or greater), run:npm i -g npm@latest - Node.js versions
v16.15.1,v17.19.1&v18.3.0include the patchedv8.11.0version ofnpm
Steps to take to see if you're impacted
- Run
npm publish --dry-runornpm packwith annpmversion>=7.9.0&<8.11.0inside the project's root directory using a workspace flag like:--workspacesor--workspace=<name>(ex.npm pack --workspace=foo) - Check the output in your terminal which will list the package contents (note:
tar -tvf <package-on-disk>also works) - If you find that there are files included you did not expect, you should:
3.1. Create & publish a new release excluding those files (ref. "Keeping files out of your Package")
3.2. Deprecate the old package (ex.
npm deprecate <pkg>[@<version>] <message>) 3.3. Revoke or rotate any sensitive information (ex. passwords, tokens, secrets etc.) which might have been exposed
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | npm | ≥ 7.9.0&&< 8.11.0 | 8.11.0npm install npm@8.11.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for npm, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update npm to 8.11.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-hj9c-8jmm-8c52 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 GHSA-hj9c-8jmm-8c52 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-hj9c-8jmm-8c52. 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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | nodejs-1:16.16.0-1.el9_0 | RHSA-2022:6595 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-hj9c-8jmm-8c52 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-hj9c-8jmm-8c52 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.