CVE-2026-55180

pnpm is a package manager. Prior to 10.34.2 and 11.5.3, pnpm and pacquet expanded ${ENV_VAR} placeholders from repository-controlled .npmrc and pnpm-workspace.yaml into registry request destinations and registry credentials. A malicious repository could cause dependency resolution to send victim environment secrets to an attacker-selected registry before lifecycle scripts run. This vulnerability is fixed in 10.34.2 and 11.5.3.

pnpm is a package manager. Prior to 10.34.2 and 11.5.3, pnpm and pacquet expanded ${ENV_VAR} placeholders from repository-controlled .npmrc and pnpm-workspace.yaml into registry request destinations and registry credentials. A malicious repository could cause dependency resolution to send victim environment secrets to an attacker-selected registry before lifecycle scripts run. This vulnerability is fixed in 10.34.2 and 11.5.3.

<!-- maintainer-action:start -->

Maintainer Action Plan

This report is ready to review with the shared patch branch. Start with the PR and the expected fixed behavior, then use the detailed exploit narrative below only if you want to replay the original path.

• Advisory: CAND-PNPM-122 / GHSA-3qhv-2rgh-x77r
• Advisory URL: https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/security/advisories/GHSA-3qhv-2rgh-x77r
• Shared patch PR: https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm-ghsa-j2hc-m6cf-6jm8/pull/1
• Shared patch branch: security/ghsa-batch-2026-06-09
• Patch commit: a93449314f398cf4bdf2e28d033c02d37395ad22
• Base commit: origin/main 55a4035abf1ae3fe7208ba1f5ef43c5eff58ccec
• Maintainer priority: start-here
• Component: pnpm config/env replacement and registry auth
• Patch area: project .npmrc env placeholders are not expanded into registry/auth destinations
• Affected packages: npm:pnpm, npm:@pnpm/config.reader, rust:pacquet
• CWE IDs: CWE-201, CWE-200, CWE-522
• Conservative CVSS: 6.5 / CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
• Next action: review the shared patch branch for this component, set the final affected version range, merge and release the fix, then publish or close the advisory.

Expected Patched Behavior

Project .npmrc environment placeholders do not expand into registry or auth destinations; the secret is absent from the request URL and auth header.

Files And Tests To Review

• config/reader/src/loadNpmrcFiles.ts
• config/reader/src/getOptionsFromRootManifest.ts
• config/reader/test/index.ts
• config/reader/test/getOptionsFromRootManifest.test.ts
• pacquet/crates/config/src/npmrc_auth.rs
• pacquet/crates/config/src/npmrc_auth/tests.rs
• pacquet/crates/config/src/workspace_yaml.rs
• pacquet/crates/config/src/workspace_yaml/tests.rs
• .changeset/sharp-registry-env-placeholders.md

Focused Validation

Run these from a checkout of the shared patch branch. They are the useful maintainer commands with machine-local artifact paths removed.

./node_modules/.bin/tsgo --build config/reader/tsconfig.json
NODE_OPTIONS="--experimental-vm-modules --disable-warning=ExperimentalWarning --disable-warning=DEP0169" ../../node_modules/.bin/jest test/getOptionsFromRootManifest.test.ts --runInBand
NODE_OPTIONS="--experimental-vm-modules --disable-warning=ExperimentalWarning --disable-warning=DEP0169" ../../node_modules/.bin/jest test/index.ts -t "project \.npmrc does not expand env variables in registry URLs|project \.npmrc does not expand env variables in scoped registry URLs or URL-scoped keys|project \.npmrc does not expand env variables in auth values|user \.npmrc may expand env variables in registry URLs|drops the placeholder when the env var is unset|substitutes normally when the env var is set|only drops the unresolved placeholder|explicit .*undefined.* fallbacks|pnpm-workspace\.yaml registries do not expand env variables|return a warning when the \.npmrc has an env variable" --runInBand
./node_modules/.bin/eslint config/reader/src/loadNpmrcFiles.ts config/reader/src/getOptionsFromRootManifest.ts config/reader/test/index.ts config/reader/test/getOptionsFromRootManifest.test.ts
cargo fmt --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml --check
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml project_ini_ignores_env_placeholders_in_registry_urls --lib
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml project_ini_ignores_env_placeholders_in_scoped_registry_urls --lib
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml project_ini_ignores_env_placeholders_in_url_scoped_keys --lib
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml project_ini_ignores_env_placeholders_in_auth_values --lib
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml trusted_ini_expands_env_placeholders_in_registry_urls --lib
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml ignores_env_vars_inside_workspace_registry_values --lib
git diff --check
cargo fmt…

pnpm is a package manager. Prior to 10.34.2 and 11.5.3, pnpm and pacquet expanded ${ENV_VAR} placeholders from repository-controlled .npmrc and pnpm-workspace.yaml into registry request destinations and registry credentials. A malicious repository could cause dependency resolution to send victim environment secrets to an attacker-selected registry before lifecycle scripts run. This vulnerability is fixed in 10.34.2 and 11.5.3.

pnpm is a package manager. Prior to 10.34.2 and 11.5.3, pnpm and pacquet expanded ${ENV_VAR} placeholders from repository-controlled .npmrc and pnpm-workspace.yaml into registry request destinations and registry credentials. A malicious repository could cause dependency resolution to send victim environment secrets to an attacker-selected registry before lifecycle scripts run. This vulnerability is fixed in 10.34.2 and 11.5.3.

<!-- maintainer-action:start -->

Maintainer Action Plan

This report is ready to review with the shared patch branch. Start with the PR and the expected fixed behavior, then use the detailed exploit narrative below only if you want to replay the original path.

• Advisory: CAND-PNPM-122 / GHSA-3qhv-2rgh-x77r
• Advisory URL: https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/security/advisories/GHSA-3qhv-2rgh-x77r
• Shared patch PR: https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm-ghsa-j2hc-m6cf-6jm8/pull/1
• Shared patch branch: security/ghsa-batch-2026-06-09
• Patch commit: a93449314f398cf4bdf2e28d033c02d37395ad22
• Base commit: origin/main 55a4035abf1ae3fe7208ba1f5ef43c5eff58ccec
• Maintainer priority: start-here
• Component: pnpm config/env replacement and registry auth
• Patch area: project .npmrc env placeholders are not expanded into registry/auth destinations
• Affected packages: npm:pnpm, npm:@pnpm/config.reader, rust:pacquet
• CWE IDs: CWE-201, CWE-200, CWE-522
• Conservative CVSS: 6.5 / CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
• Next action: review the shared patch branch for this component, set the final affected version range, merge and release the fix, then publish or close the advisory.

Expected Patched Behavior

Project .npmrc environment placeholders do not expand into registry or auth destinations; the secret is absent from the request URL and auth header.

Files And Tests To Review

• config/reader/src/loadNpmrcFiles.ts
• config/reader/src/getOptionsFromRootManifest.ts
• config/reader/test/index.ts
• config/reader/test/getOptionsFromRootManifest.test.ts
• pacquet/crates/config/src/npmrc_auth.rs
• pacquet/crates/config/src/npmrc_auth/tests.rs
• pacquet/crates/config/src/workspace_yaml.rs
• pacquet/crates/config/src/workspace_yaml/tests.rs
• .changeset/sharp-registry-env-placeholders.md

Focused Validation

Run these from a checkout of the shared patch branch. They are the useful maintainer commands with machine-local artifact paths removed.

./node_modules/.bin/tsgo --build config/reader/tsconfig.json
NODE_OPTIONS="--experimental-vm-modules --disable-warning=ExperimentalWarning --disable-warning=DEP0169" ../../node_modules/.bin/jest test/getOptionsFromRootManifest.test.ts --runInBand
NODE_OPTIONS="--experimental-vm-modules --disable-warning=ExperimentalWarning --disable-warning=DEP0169" ../../node_modules/.bin/jest test/index.ts -t "project \.npmrc does not expand env variables in registry URLs|project \.npmrc does not expand env variables in scoped registry URLs or URL-scoped keys|project \.npmrc does not expand env variables in auth values|user \.npmrc may expand env variables in registry URLs|drops the placeholder when the env var is unset|substitutes normally when the env var is set|only drops the unresolved placeholder|explicit .*undefined.* fallbacks|pnpm-workspace\.yaml registries do not expand env variables|return a warning when the \.npmrc has an env variable" --runInBand
./node_modules/.bin/eslint config/reader/src/loadNpmrcFiles.ts config/reader/src/getOptionsFromRootManifest.ts config/reader/test/index.ts config/reader/test/getOptionsFromRootManifest.test.ts
cargo fmt --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml --check
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml project_ini_ignores_env_placeholders_in_registry_urls --lib
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml project_ini_ignores_env_placeholders_in_scoped_registry_urls --lib
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml project_ini_ignores_env_placeholders_in_url_scoped_keys --lib
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml project_ini_ignores_env_placeholders_in_auth_values --lib
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml trusted_ini_expands_env_placeholders_in_registry_urls --lib
cargo test --manifest-path pacquet/crates/config/Cargo.toml ignores_env_vars_inside_workspace_registry_values --lib
git diff --check
cargo fmt…

Root has patched CVE-2026-55180 in the @rootio/pnpm package for Root:npm. Multiple fixed versions available.