npm
CVE-2021-43616
CRITICAL
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A08:2025 - Software or Data Integrity Failures
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Data authenticity verification
|
| Impact | CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. Public proof-of-concept exploit code is available. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | This vulnerability can be exploited remotely over the network. Successful exploitation could compromise the critical-severity affected system. |
Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.
Alert meAnalysisAI
The npm ci command in npm 7.x and 8.x through 8.1.3 proceeds with an installation even if dependency information in package-lock.json differs from package.json. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.
Affects your stack
Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-345. The npm ci command in npm 7.x and 8.x through 8.1.3 proceeds with an installation even if dependency information in package-lock.json differs from package.json. This behavior is inconsistent with the documentation, and makes it easier for attackers to install malware that was supposed to have been blocked by an exact version match requirement in package-lock.json. NOTE: The npm team believes this is not a vulnerability. It would require someone to socially engineer package.json which has different dependencies than package-lock.json. That user would have to have file system or write access to change dependencies. The npm team states preventing malicious actors from socially engineering or gaining file system access is outside the scope of the npm CLI. Affected products include: Npmjs Npm, Netapp Next Generation Application Programming Interface, Fedoraproject Fedora. Version information: through 8.1.3.
Know when npm gets its next vulnerability
- Watch products and get an email when something new is published
- Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
No credit card · 7-day full trial
Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionNVD
The npm ci command in npm 7.x and 8.x through 8.1.3 proceeds with an installation even if dependency information in package-lock.json differs from package.json. This behavior is inconsistent with the documentation, and makes it easier for attackers to install malware that was supposed to have been blocked by an exact version match requirement in package-lock.json. NOTE: The npm team believes this is not a vulnerability. It would require someone to socially engineer package.json which has different dependencies than package-lock.json. That user would have to have file system or write access to change dependencies. The npm team states preventing malicious actors from socially engineering or gaining file system access is outside the scope of the npm CLI.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
GitHub
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
Affected Products (CPE)NVD
DNS rebinding against the local Streamable HTTP MCP listener in @zereight/mcp-gitlab before 2.1.30 lets a malicious web
Archive extraction in the Node.js decompress package allows a crafted archive containing chained symlink entries to reso
The legacy DOC renderer in File Viewer emits document-controlled hyperlink targets into generated HTML after character e
Untrusted git configuration includes reachable through simple-git before 4.0.0 let an attacker execute arbitrary command
A remote, unauthenticated denial-of-service condition in the NestJS (Nest) microservices framework lets an attacker cras
Deeply nested brace patterns cause unbounded recursion in the npm brace-expansion library, exhausting the native stack a
Stack exhaustion in the npm library brace-expansion (all versions prior to 1.1.19, 2.1.5, 3.0.7, and 5.0.10) lets a craf
The JavaScript library ip-address (npm) fails to treat the NAT64 local-use prefix 64:ff9b:1::/48 as private, so applicat
Cross-family subnet comparisons in the ip-address npm library (all versions before 10.7.1) can cause isInSubnet and isHo
Denial of service in the ip-address JavaScript/npm library (all versions prior to 10.7.1) lets remote attackers stall or
A credential-isolation flaw in geelen mcp-remote 0.1.16 through 0.1.38 allows a remote attacker who controls or can pred
Code injection in orval's opt-in @orval/hono generator (all versions before 8.29.0) lets an attacker who controls an Ope
Exploit-DB