CVE-2026-23888

pnpm: Binary ZIP extraction allows arbitrary file write via path traversal (Zip Slip)

State
Published
Severity
6.5 Medium
Published
Jan 26, 2026
Updated
Jan 27, 2026
Reserved
Jan 16, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

pnpm is a package manager. Prior to version 10.28.1, a path traversal vulnerability in pnpm's binary fetcher allows malicious packages to write files outside the intended extraction directory. The vulnerability has two attack vectors: (1) Malicious ZIP entries containing `../` or absolute paths that escape the extraction root via AdmZip's `extractAllTo`, and (2) The `BinaryResolution.prefix` field is concatenated into the extraction path without validation, allowing a crafted prefix like `../../evil` to redirect extracted files outside `targetDir`. The issue impacts all pnpm users who install packages with binary assets, users who configure custom Node.js binary locations and CI/CD pipelines that auto-install binary dependencies. It can lead to overwriting config files, scripts, or other sensitive files leading to RCE. Version 10.28.1 contains a patch.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.16.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:NGitHub_M

Weaknesses

  • CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
  • CWE-23 Relative Path Traversal
  • CWE-426 Untrusted Search Path

Affected Products

ProductVersions
pnpmpnpm
  • < 10.28.1Affected

References

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