Insufficient verification of data authenticity in npm cli

1) Insufficient verification of data authenticity

EUVDB-ID: #VU63842

Risk: High

CVSSv3.1: 8.5 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2021-43616

CWE-ID: CWE-345 - Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to insufficient verification of data authenticity in the npm ci command. A remote attacker can exploit the vulnerability to install malware that was supposed to have been blocked by an exact version match requirement in package-lock.json.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

CLI: 7.0.0 - 8.4.0

External links

http://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v7/commands/npm-ci
http://github.com/npm/cli/issues/2701
http://github.com/icatalina/CVE-2021-43616
http://medium.com/cider-sec/this-time-we-were-lucky-85c0dcac94a0
http://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20211210-0002/
http://github.com/npm/cli/commit/457e0ae61bbc55846f5af44afa4066921923490f
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/NXNVFKOF5ZYH5NIRWHKN6O6UBCHDV6FE/

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.