GHSA-v63m-x9r9-8gqp
MEDIUMAWS CDK CLI prints AWS credentials retrieved by custom credential plugins
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.
Blast Radius
Weekly download volume for affected packages — a proxy for how broadly this vulnerability is deployed.
aws-cdknpmcdknpmDescription
Summary
The AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) [1] is an open-source software development framework for defining cloud infrastructure in code and provisioning it through AWS CloudFormation. The AWS CDK CLI [2] is a command line tool for interacting with CDK applications. Customers can use the CDK CLI to create, manage, and deploy their AWS CDK projects.
An issue exists in the AWS CDK CLI where, under certain conditions, AWS credentials may be returned in the console output. Plugins that return an expiration property in the credentials object are affected by this issue. Plugins that omit the expiration property are not affected.
Impact
When customers run AWS CDK CLI commands with credential plugins and configure those plugins to return temporary credentials by including an expiration property, the AWS credentials retrieved by the plugin may be returned in the console output. Any user with access where the CDK CLI was ran would have access to this output.
The following are examples of configuring a custom credential plugin:
Via command line option:
cdk deploy --plugin /path/to/plugin
Via configuration file [3]:
{
"plugin": "/path/to/plugin"
}
Plugins that return an expiration property in the credentials object, such as the following example, are affected:
return {
accessKeyId: '<access-key>',
secretAccessKey: '<secret-access-key>',
sessionToken: '<session-token>',
expiration: <date>,
};
The expiration property indicates that the provided credentials are temporary.
Please refer to our "AWS CDK CLI Library" guide for more information about custom credential plugins [4].
Impacted versions: >=2.172.0 and <2.178.2
Patches
The issue has been addressed in version 2.178.2 [5]. We recommend upgrading to the latest version and ensuring any forked or derivative code is patched to incorporate the new fixes.
Workarounds
If you are unable to upgrade to version 2.178.2 or later, you can downgrade to version 2.171.1. If you are unable to downgrade, but have access to the code of the credential plugin you use, you can remove the expiration property from the object returned by the plugin.
For example, change the code from returning this:
return {
accessKeyId: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.AccessKeyId,
secretAccessKey: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.SecretAccessKey,
sessionToken: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.SessionToken,
// Expiration indicates to the CLI that this is temporary
expiration: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.Expiration,
};
To return this:
return {
accessKeyId: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.AccessKeyId,
secretAccessKey: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.SecretAccessKey,
sessionToken: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.SessionToken,
};
Note that this will prevent the CDK CLI from refreshing the credentials when needed, and may cause your workflow to fail on an expired credentials error.
References
[1] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/home.html
[2] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/cli.html
[3] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/cli.html#cli-config
[4] https://www.npmjs.com/package/@aws-cdk/cli-plugin-contract
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | aws-cdk | ≥ 2.172.0&&< 2.178.2 | 2.178.2 |
| 📦npm | cdk | ≥ 2.172.0&&< 2.178.2 | 2.178.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for aws-cdk. 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 aws-cdk to 2.178.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-v63m-x9r9-8gqp 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-v63m-x9r9-8gqp 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-v63m-x9r9-8gqp. 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-v63m-x9r9-8gqp in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-v63m-x9r9-8gqp across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.