Vulnerability · Published Jan 26, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-23888pnpm: Binary ZIP extraction allows arbitrary file write via path traversal (Zip Slip)
Medium 6.5
In plain English
A medium-severity path traversal in pnpm from pnpm. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.4% (higher than 39% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
pnpm is a package manager. Prior to version 10.28.1, a path traversal vulnerability in pnpm's binary fetcher allows malicious packages to write files outside the intended extraction directory. The vulnerability has two attack vectors: (1) Malicious ZIP entries containing `../` or absolute paths that escape the extraction root via AdmZip's `extractAllTo`, and (2) The `BinaryResolution.prefix` field is concatenated into the extraction path without validation, allowing a crafted prefix like `../../evil` to redirect extracted files outside `targetDir`. The issue impacts all pnpm users who install packages with binary assets, users who configure custom Node.js binary locations and CI/CD pipelines that auto-install binary dependencies. It can lead to overwriting config files, scripts, or other sensitive files leading to RCE. Version 10.28.1 contains a patch.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine:v3.23 | pnpm | 10.33.4-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-23888 |
| npm | pnpm | 10.28.1 | GHSA-6pfh-p556-v868 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-22, CWE-23, CWE-426 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
References
- https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/security/advisories/GHSA-6pfh-p556-v868 x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/commit/5c382f0ca3b7cc49963b94677426e66539dcb3f5 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/releases/tag/v10.28.1 x_refsource_MISC