Vulnerability · Published Nov 4, 2026 · Assigned by harborist
CVE-2026-121746nvm use --save and nvm install --save write through a symlinked .nvmrc, overwriting any file the user can write
Medium 5.5
In plain English
A medium-severity security flaw in nvm from nvm-sh. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 6% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official description
Node Version Manager (nvm) is a POSIX-compliant shell function for managing multiple node.js versions. In versions 0.40.0 through 0.40.8, `nvm use --save` and `nvm install --save` (or `-w`) write the resolved version to `$PWD/.nvmrc` with `tee`, which follows a symbolic link. A repository that commits `.nvmrc` as a symlink to a path outside itself (git recreates the link on clone) therefore makes `--save` truncate any file the user can write, such as a shell startup file or `~/.ssh/authorized_keys`, and replace its contents with the version string, or create the target of a dangling link; the link itself is left unchanged, so `git status` stays clean. The attacker does not control the content written, so this is data loss, not code execution. Version 0.41.0 refuses, with a warning, to write when `.nvmrc` in the current directory is a symlink, dangling or not, rather than writing through it or replacing it.
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-59 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
References
- GHSA-8qjx-8r8m-mpqh vendor-advisory
- Fix commit 3f8411e5 patch