pnpm: Environment secrets exfiltrated via env-placeholder expansion in proxy settings read from an untrusted pnpm-workspace.yaml
## Summary pnpm expands `${VAR}` environment placeholders in the `httpProxy` / `httpsProxy` / `noProxy` settings read from a project's `pnpm-workspace.yaml`. Because a project manifest is repository-controlled, a malicious repository that a victim merely clones and runs `pnpm install` in can route all install traffic through an attacker proxy whose hostname or userinfo embeds — and thereby exfiltrates — an environment secret such as `NPM_TOKEN` or `GITHUB_TOKEN`. This bypasses a trust boundary pnpm deliberately enforces: env-placeholder expansion of request-destination settings is already suppressed for `registry`, `pnprServer`, `registries` and `namedRegistries` when they come from an untrusted project manifest, and the sibling `.npmrc` reader already classifies the proxy keys as request destinations. The manifest-side guard set simply omitted them. ## Impact An attacker who controls only the contents of a repository's `pnpm-workspace.yaml` — a public repo, a fork, or a supply-chain pull request — can read many values out of the victim's process environment and have them delivered to an attacker-controlled host. No pre-existing access to the victim's store, global config, lockfile, `node_modules`, or environment is required. The secret is exfiltrated during config loading, before any lifecycle script runs. This turns "I can author a project manifest" into "I read the victim's environment secrets." ## Affected versions Introduced in pnpm 10.7.0, which added environment-variab
GHSA-vx52-2968-3vc6
Primary source · Revision 1
Imported from structured advisory data. Source references identify upstream records or fields; verify affected versions and your deployed configuration.
Security context
Source reference: osv:GHSA-vx52-2968-3vc6
pnpm
Source reference: /affected/0/package/name
- Affected versions
- Not stated in this record
- Fixed versions
- 11.11.0
Source reference:
/affected/0/ranges - Prerequisites
- Not stated in this record
pnpm
Source reference: /affected/1/package/name
- Affected versions
- Not stated in this record
- Fixed versions
- 10.34.5
Source reference:
/affected/1/ranges - Prerequisites
- Not stated in this record
Structured affected-version data
Original package identities and version rules from this source.
[
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "SEMVER",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "11.0.0"
},
{
"fixed": "11.11.0"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "pnpm",
"purl": "pkg:npm/pnpm",
"ecosystem": "npm"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/09/GHSA-vx52-2968-3vc6/GHSA-vx52-2968-3vc6.json"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "SEMVER",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "10.7.0"
},
{
"fixed": "10.34.5"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "pnpm",
"purl": "pkg:npm/pnpm",
"ecosystem": "npm"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/09/GHSA-vx52-2968-3vc6/GHSA-vx52-2968-3vc6.json"
}
}
]- Related CVEs
- CVE-2026-101043
Source reference:
/aliases
Publisher severity
high
Source reference: /database_specific/severity
- Event
- #21148 · Revision 1
- Added to Heist Feed
- Publisher date