Detections
Analytics
SCA: security update for @npmcli/arborist (GHSA-2h3h-q99f-3fhc)
high Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security Plugin ID 408927
Description
There are packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability referenced in the following CVE:- `@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, in
part, accomplished by resolving dependency specifiers defined in `package.json` manifests for dependencies
with a specific name, and nesting folders to resolve conflicting dependencies. When multiple dependencies
differ only in the case of their name, Arborist's internal data structure saw them as separate items that
could coexist within the same level in the `node_modules` hierarchy. However, on case-insensitive file
systems (such as macOS and Windows), this is not the case. Combined with a symlink dependency such as
`file:/some/path`, this allowed an attacker to create a situation in which arbitrary contents could be
written to any location on the filesystem. For example, a package `pwn-a` could define a dependency in
their `package.json` file such as `"foo": "file:/some/path"`. Another package, `pwn-b` could define a
dependency such as `FOO: "file:foo.tgz"`. On case-insensitive file systems, if `pwn-a` was installed, and
then `pwn-b` was installed afterwards, the contents of `foo.tgz` would be written to `/some/path`, and any
existing contents of `/some/path` would be removed. Anyone using npm v7.20.6 or earlier on a case-
insensitive filesystem is potentially affected. This is patched in @npmcli/arborist 2.8.2 which is
included in npm v7.20.7 and above. (CVE-2021-39134)
See Also
Plugin Details
Severity: High
ID: 408927
Version: Revision 1.4
Type: Local
Family: SCA Checks
Published: 1/23/2025
Updated: 7/2/2026
Supported Sensors: Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security
Risk Information
VPR
Risk Factor: Medium
Score: 4.9
Percentile: 57.12
Vendor
Vendor Severity: High
CVSS v2
Risk Factor: Medium
Base Score: 4.4
Temporal Score: 3.3
Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-39134
CVSS v3
Risk Factor: High
Base Score: 7.8
Temporal Score: 6.8
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C
Vulnerability Information
Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available
Patch Publication Date: 8/31/2021
Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/31/2021
Reference Information
CVE: CVE-2021-39134