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CVE-2026-118905EUVD-2026-112603

nvm_ls lets an untrusted version string inject sed commands, executing arbitrary commands with GNU sed

Published
Last modified
published
Not listed in CISA KEV
Fix
Fixed in 0.40.6
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub

Summary

Node Version Manager (nvm) versions 0.31.2 through 0.40.5 are affected. A crafted version string or `.nvmrc` file can make nvm's version-listing code run attacker-supplied commands with GNU sed, or read and write files with BSD sed, under the user's account.

Summarized by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5. Verify details against the original sources.

Read the original description

Node Version Manager (nvm) is a POSIX-compliant shell function for managing multiple node.js versions. In versions 0.31.2 through 0.40.5, `nvm_ls` filters installed versions with a sed program that embeds the requested version pattern in a `\#...#` address, escaping `.` (and, since 0.40.4, `#`) but not backslash. A version string containing `#` (or `\#`) therefore closes the address early, and the rest of it is parsed as sed commands: with GNU sed, the `e` command runs a shell command as the user; with BSD sed, the `w` and `r` commands write and read files. This is reachable whenever an attacker-influenced version string is passed to `nvm use`, `nvm which`, `nvm ls`, `nvm version`, `nvm run`, or `nvm exec`, or to `nvm-exec` via `NODE_VERSION`, and at least one version is installed. nvm's own `.nvmrc` parser strips comments, so a bare `nvm use` is not affected; however, the bash `cdnvm` and zsh `load-nvmrc` auto-switch hooks documented in the README read `.nvmrc` as-is and pass it to `nvm ls` and `nvm version`, so a user with one of those hooks installed runs the attacker's command just by changing into a directory under a malicious `.nvmrc`; scripts that run `nvm use "$(cat .nvmrc)"` are affected the same way. Version 0.40.6 passes any version pattern containing `#` or a newline through the `.nvmrc` content parser first, so no `#` reaches the sed program.

Timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. First seen by cve.now

Affected versions

  • nvm-sh nvm

    From 0.31.2 · fixed in 0.40.6

References 4

GitHub · nvm-sh/nvm