nvm exposes NVM_AUTH_HEADER to other local users on the curl/wget command line
Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.
- Exploited
- No known exploitation
- Fix
- Fixed in 0.41.0
- Who is exposed
- Not reported
Do first: Upgrade to a fixed version: 0.41.0.
- Exploitation?/40Exploitation: unknown (data gap). No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
- Exposure?/25Exposure: unknown (data gap). No advisory context yet
- Reach?/20Reach: unknown (data gap). No tracked technology or package matched
- Severity2/10CVSS 2.0
- No patch0/5No signal
What would change the score
- Would score about 57 if added to CISA KEV
- Would score about 52 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
- Would score about 24 if advisories confirm default setups are exposed
CVE-2026-121745 is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. No public exploit code is tracked. It is rated CVSS 2.0 (low) and affects nvm; fixed in 0.41.0.
- Last modified
- Where the record stands: published, rejected by its publisher, or superseded by another id.What do these mean? →
- Published
- Whether CISA lists it in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: proof that attackers are using it.What do these mean? →
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- A 0-100 score for how much a CVE matters across the industry: exploitation, exposure, how widely the software is used, severity and whether a fix exists.What do these mean? →
- 2/100 · provisional
- Fix
- Fixed in 0.41.0
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
Node Version Manager (nvm) versions 0.40.0 through 0.40.8 can expose the NVM_AUTH_HEADER credential to other unprivileged users on the same machine, because nvm passes it to curl or wget as a command-line argument that any local user can see in the process list. An attacker needs a local account on that shared host, and the exposed token can grant whatever access it provides to the private mirror; this affects only users who set NVM_AUTH_HEADER on a shared host, and version 0.41.0 fixes it for curl and GNU Wget, though BusyBox wget still receives the header as an argument.
Read the original 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, when `NVM_AUTH_HEADER` is set, `nvm_download` passes the credential to curl or wget as a `--header "Authorization: ..."` command-line argument. Process arguments are visible to every local user (on Linux via `ps` or `/proc//cmdline` unless `/proc` is mounted with `hidepid=`; on macOS via `ps`), so another unprivileged account on the same machine can read the token while nvm is downloading during `nvm ls-remote`, `nvm install`, and similar commands, and gain whatever access it grants on the private mirror. Only users who set `NVM_AUTH_HEADER` on a host shared with other local accounts are affected. Version 0.41.0 passes the header to curl on stdin and to GNU Wget in a private temporary config file. BusyBox wget reads no config file, so when it is the only downloader available the header is still passed as an argument.
What to do
Upgrade to a fixed version: 0.41.0.
Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
Affected versions
- nvm-sh nvm
From 0.40.0 · fixed in 0.41.0
Evidence 2
- Advisory
- Patch
Corrections
None so far.
Something wrong on this page? Report an error. Every fix is listed here.
Questions about CVE-2026-121745
Is CVE-2026-121745 being exploited?
It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-121745?
nvm: from 0.40.0 before 0.41.0.Source: cve.now feed data
How do I fix CVE-2026-121745?
Upgrade to a fixed version: 0.41.0.Source: cve.now feed data