Bug 2567684 (CVE-2026-121748)

Summary: CVE-2026-121748 nvm: nvm: Arbitrary file corruption via untrusted project configuration
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
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OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in Node Version Manager (nvm). When executing the prefix deletion command, nvm invokes the package manager without specifying a target configuration file, allowing settings from an untrusted project configuration to designate which file is edited. An attacker who convinces a user to run this command within a malicious repository can corrupt arbitrary user files or alter file permissions to make sensitive files world-writable.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-11-05 22:17:53 UTC
Node Version Manager (nvm) is a POSIX-compliant shell function for managing multiple node.js versions. In versions 0.27.0 through 0.40.8, when a project's `.npmrc` sets `prefix`, `nvm use` tells the user to run `nvm use --delete-prefix`, which runs `npm config delete prefix` and `npm config delete globalconfig` in the current directory without naming a config file. npm loads the project `.npmrc` before deciding which file to edit, so that file chooses the target: `userconfig=~/.bashrc` makes npm rewrite `~/.bashrc` as ini (corrupting it), and `location=global` with `globalconfig=` leaves the chosen file at mode 0666, which on a shared machine lets another local user write to it. The attacker (the author of a cloned repository or archive, or a local user who can write a shared parent directory) chooses the file but not the bytes written, and no project code runs. Version 0.41.0 no longer lets a project `.npmrc` select which config file `--delete-prefix` edits.