#VU23888 Symlink following in NPM - CVE-2019-16775
Published: January 2, 2020 / Updated: February 24, 2020
Vulnerability identifier: #VU23888
Vulnerability risk: Low
CVSSv4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear
CVE-ID: CVE-2019-16775
CWE-ID: CWE-61
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerable software:
NPM
NPM
Software vendor:
isaacs
isaacs
Description
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform directory traversal attacks.
Versions of the npm CLI prior to 6.13.3 are vulnerable to a symlink reference outside of node_modules. It is possible for packages to create symlinks to files outside of the node_modules folder through the bin field upon installation. A properly constructed entry in the package.json bin field would allow a package publisher to create a symlink pointing to arbitrary files on a user’s system when the package is installed. Only files accessible by the user running the npm install are affected.
Remediation
Install update from vendor's website.