[Pkg-javascript-devel] Bug#993405: npm: CVE-2021-39135

[Salvatore Bonaccorso]

Source: npm
Version: 7.5.2+ds-2
Severity: important
Tags: security upstream
X-Debbugs-Cc: carnil at debian.org, Debian Security Team <team at security.debian.org>

Hi,

The following vulnerability was published for npm.

CVE-2021-39135[0]:
| `@npmcli/arborist`, the library that calculates dependency trees and
| manages the node_modules folder hierarchy for the npm command line
| interface, aims to guarantee that package dependency contracts will be
| met, and the extraction of package contents will always be performed
| into the expected folder. This is accomplished by extracting package
| contents into a project's `node_modules` folder. If the `node_modules`
| folder of the root project or any of its dependencies is somehow
| replaced with a symbolic link, it could allow Arborist to write
| package dependencies to any arbitrary location on the file system.
| Note that symbolic links contained within package artifact contents
| are filtered out, so another means of creating a `node_modules`
| symbolic link would have to be employed. 1. A `preinstall` script
| could replace `node_modules` with a symlink. (This is prevented by
| using `--ignore-scripts`.) 2. An attacker could supply the target with
| a git repository, instructing them to run `npm install --ignore-
| scripts` in the root. This may be successful, because `npm install
| --ignore-scripts` is typically not capable of making changes outside
| of the project directory, so it may be deemed safe. This is patched in
| @npmcli/arborist 2.8.2 which is included in npm v7.20.7 and above. For
| more information including workarounds please see the referenced GHSA-
| gmw6-94gg-2rc2.


If you fix the vulnerability please also make sure to include the
CVE (Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures) id in your changelog entry.

For further information see:

[0] https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-39135
    https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2021-39135
[1] https://github.com/npm/arborist/security/advisories/GHSA-gmw6-94gg-2rc2

Please adjust the affected versions in the BTS as needed.

Regards,
Salvatore