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nvm evaluates a malicious mirror's index.tab version strings as shell arithmetic via stored LTS aliases

Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.

2.1LowCNA
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.

9Pcve.now Index 9 of 100 · methodology v3 · provisional
  • Exploitation?/40Exploitation: unknown (data gap). No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
  • Exposure7/25Reachable over the network without a login · Data gap: No advisory context yet
  • Reach?/20Reach: unknown (data gap). No tracked technology or package matched
  • Severity2.1/10CVSS 2.1
  • No patch0/5No signal

What would change the score

  • Would score about 64 if added to CISA KEV
  • Would score about 59 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
  • Would score about 24 if advisories confirm default setups are exposed

CVE-2026-121751 is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. No public exploit code is tracked. It is rated CVSS 2.1 (low) and affects nvm; fixed in 0.41.0.

Published
Last modified
Published
Not listed in CISA KEV
9/100 · provisional
Fix
Fixed in 0.41.0
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub

Summary

Earlier releases of nvm (Node Version Manager) can let an attacker run arbitrary commands as the user. An attacker can do this remotely, without logging in, by serving a malicious version index through a mirror that a user then runs an affected nvm command against.

Read the original description

Node Version Manager (nvm) is a POSIX-compliant shell function for managing multiple node.js versions. In versions 0.39.6 through 0.40.8, `nvm ls-remote` (and other commands that refresh remote LTS aliases) store the version column of the mirror's `index.tab` in `$NVM_DIR/alias/lts/` without validating it, and `nvm_normalize_lts` later evaluates any suffix of an `lts/-N` value inside shell arithmetic `$((N+1))`. Under bash and zsh, arithmetic evaluation expands command substitutions in array subscripts, so a stored value such as `lts/-10*path[$(cmd)1]` runs `cmd` as the user when the alias is later resolved by purely local commands (`nvm ls`, `nvm alias`, `nvm use --lts`, `nvm which lts/`), and in every new shell when the `default` alias is `lts/*`. Exploitation requires the victim to use a hostile mirror -- via a compromised mirror or CDN, a network man-in-the-middle of an `http://` mirror, or a maliciously configured `NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR` -- and to run an affected command. The same sink is also reachable from a project `.nvmrc`, which is treated as hardening. dash is not affected. Version 0.41.0 only passes an all-digit `lts/-N` offset to arithmetic and drops `index.tab` rows whose version is not a valid version string.

What to do

  • Upgrade to a fixed version: 0.41.0.

Timeline

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

Affected versions

  • nvm-sh nvm

    From 0.39.6 · fixed in 0.41.0

Evidence 2

  1. Advisory
  2. Patch

Corrections

None so far.

Something wrong on this page? Report an error. Every fix is listed here.

FAQ

Questions about CVE-2026-121751

Is CVE-2026-121751 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-2026-121751?

nvm: from 0.39.6 before 0.41.0.Source: cve.now feed data

How do I fix CVE-2026-121751?

Upgrade to a fixed version: 0.41.0.Source: cve.now feed data