Interpretation Conflict in pnpm - CVE-2023-37478
Published: August 1, 2023 / Updated: April 27, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU128176
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 6.9 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2023-37478
CWE-ID: CWE-436
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause installation of a malicious package version.
The vulnerability exists due to improper handling of duplicate archive entries in tar archive parsing in tar archive extraction in pnpm when processing a crafted tarball. A remote attacker can supply a specially crafted package tarball to cause installation of a malicious package version.
The issue arises because pnpm uses the first file with a given name in the archive, while other package managers are expected to use the last matching entry after path component stripping.
Affected software
pnpm
How to mitigate CVE-2023-37478
Install security update from vendor's website.
pnpm - addressed in versions 7.33.4, 8.6.8