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Fencer Vulns
high 7.7

CVE-2019-16777 json

Arbitrary File Overwrite in npm CLI

published 2019-12-13 6 y ago modified 2026-09-10 1 mo ago also GHSA-4328-8hgf-7wjr , EUVD-2019-0774

cvss
7.7
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.0%
EPSS 2.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 81%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Versions of the npm CLI prior to 6.13.4 are vulnerable to an Arbitrary File Overwrite. It fails to prevent existing globally-installed binaries to be overwritten by other package installations. For example, if a package was installed globally and created a serve binary, any subsequent installs of packages that also create a serve binary would overwrite the previous serve binary. This behavior is still allowed in local installations and also through install scripts. This vulnerability bypasses a user using the --ignore-scripts install option.

Patch / fix

  • npm npm 6.13.4
  • npm cli 6.13.4
  • npm Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 6.13.4+ds-2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-16777

  • rh-nodejs8-nodejs RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 8.17.0-2.el7
  • rh-nodejs8-npm RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 6.13.4-8.17.0.2.el7
  • npm RHEL 8 1:6.13.4-1.10.19.0.1.module+el8.1.0+5726+6ed65f8c
  • nodejs RHEL 8 1:10.19.0-1.module+el8.1.0+5726+6ed65f8c
  • nodejs-nodemon RHEL 8, RHEL 8.0 E4S 1.18.3-1.module+el8+2632+6c5111ed
  • nodejs-packaging RHEL 8, RHEL 8.0 E4S 17-3.module+el8+2873+aa7dfd9a
  • rh-nodejs10-nodejs RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 10.19.0-1.el7
  • rh-nodejs10-npm RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 6.13.4-10.19.0.1.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:2625RHSA-2020:0579RHSA-2020:0597RHSA-2020:0573RHSA-2020:0602RHEA-2020:0330

  • nodejs12 SLE Module for Web and Scripting 12 12.15.0-1.6.1
  • nodejs6 SLE Module for Web and Scripting 12, OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9, OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8 +1 more 6.17.1-11.30.1
  • nodejs10 SLE Module for Web and Scripting 15 SP1, SLE Module for Web and Scripting 15, SLE Module for Web and Scripting 12 10.18.0-1.15.1
  • nodejs8 SLE Module for Web and Scripting 15 SP1, SLE Module for Web and Scripting 15 8.17.0-3.25.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:0429-1SUSE-SU-2020:0247-1SUSE-SU-2020:0104-1SUSE-SU-2020:0063-1SUSE-SU-2020:0043-1

  • nodejs8 openSUSE Leap 15.1 8.17.0-lp151.2.9.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2020:0059-1

  • nodejs-nodemon AlmaLinux 8 1.18.3-1.module_el8.3.0+2023+d2377ea3
  • nodejs-nodemon AlmaLinux 8 1.18.3-1.module_el8.3.0+2047+b07ac28e
  • nodejs-packaging AlmaLinux 8 17-3.module_el8.4.0+2224+b07ac28e
  • nodejs-packaging AlmaLinux 8 17-3.module_el8.4.0+2521+c668cc9f
  • nodejs-packaging AlmaLinux 8 17-3.module_el8.3.0+2023+d2377ea3

almalinux advisories ALSA-2020:0579ALEA-2020:0330

  • nodejs-nodemon Rocky Linux 8 1.18.3-1.module+el8.3.0+101+f84c7154
  • nodejs-packaging Rocky Linux 8 17-3.module+el8.3.0+101+f84c7154

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2020:0579

  • npm Arch Linux 6.13.4-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1082

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2019-16777 updated cvss 4.8

npm: Global node_modules Binary Overwrite

  • Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes nodejs8 nodejs8
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) nodejs 10.19.0-1.module+el8.1.0+5726+6ed65f8c, nodejs 12.14.1-1.module+el8.1.0+5466+30f75629, nodejs-packaging 17-3.module+el8+2873+aa7dfd9a, nodejs-nodemon 1.18.3-1.module+el8+2632+6c5111ed, nodejs-packaging 17-3.module+el8.1.0+3369+37ae6a45, npm 6.13.4-1.10.19.0.1.module+el8.1.0+5726+6ed65f8c, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0579
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v. 8.0) nodejs 10.19.0-1.module+el8.0.0+5738+1362a79c, nodejs-packaging 17-3.module+el8+2873+aa7dfd9a, nodejs-nodemon 1.18.3-1.module+el8+2632+6c5111ed, npm 6.13.4-1.10.19.0.1.module+el8.0.0+5738+1362a79c
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0573
  • Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) rh-nodejs8-nodejs 8.17.0-2.el7, rh-nodejs10-nodejs 10.19.0-1.el7, rh-nodejs12-nodejs 12.16.1-1.el7, rh-nodejs8-npm 6.13.4-8.17.0.2.el7, rh-nodejs10-npm 6.13.4-10.19.0.1.el7, rh-nodejs12-npm 6.13.4-12.16.1.1.el7 Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.5) rh-nodejs10-nodejs 10.19.0-1.el7, rh-nodejs12-nodejs 12.16.1-1.el7, rh-nodejs10-npm 6.13.4-10.19.0.1.el7, rh-nodejs12-npm 6.13.4-12.16.1.1.el7 Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.6) rh-nodejs8-nodejs 8.17.0-2.el7, rh-nodejs10-nodejs 10.19.0-1.el7, rh-nodejs12-nodejs 12.16.1-1.el7, rh-nodejs8-npm 6.13.4-8.17.0.2.el7, rh-nodejs10-npm 6.13.4-10.19.0.1.el7, rh-nodejs12-npm 6.13.4-12.16.1.1.el7 Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.7) rh-nodejs8-nodejs 8.17.0-2.el7, rh-nodejs10-nodejs 10.19.0-1.el7, rh-nodejs12-nodejs 12.16.1-1.el7, rh-nodejs8-npm 6.13.4-8.17.0.2.el7, rh-nodejs10-npm 6.13.4-10.19.0.1.el7, rh-nodejs12-npm 6.13.4-12.16.1.1.el7 Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) rh-nodejs8-nodejs 8.17.0-2.el7, rh-nodejs10-nodejs 10.19.0-1.el7, rh-nodejs12-nodejs 12.16.1-1.el7, rh-nodejs8-npm 6.13.4-8.17.0.2.el7, rh-nodejs10-npm 6.13.4-10.19.0.1.el7, rh-nodejs12-npm 6.13.4-12.16.1.1.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0597

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

2.04% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 81% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
NVD 2.0 5.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:P
GitHub 3.1 7.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
npm npm
<6.13.4
6.13.4

Affected products

  • npm cli

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
  • CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.