CVE-2026-121748 nvm use --delete-prefix lets a project .npmrc choose which file npm rewrites or makes world-writable
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-121748?
CVE-2026-121748 is a low-severity vulnerability in nvm-sh nvm, published on 4 Nov 2026.
Official description
Node Version Manager (nvm) is a POSIX-compliant shell function for managing multiple node.js versions. In versions 0.27.0 through 0.40.8, when a project's `.npmrc` sets `prefix`, `nvm use` tells the user to run `nvm use --delete-prefix`, which runs `npm config delete prefix` and `npm config delete globalconfig` in the current directory without naming a config file. npm loads the project `.npmrc` before deciding which file to edit, so that file chooses the target: `userconfig=~/.bashrc` makes npm rewrite `~/.bashrc` as ini (corrupting it), and `location=global` with `globalconfig=` leaves the chosen file at mode 0666, which on a shared machine lets another local user write to it. The attacker (the author of a cloned repository or archive, or a local user who can write a shared parent directory) chooses the file but not the bytes written, and no project code runs. Version 0.41.0 no longer lets a project `.npmrc` select which config file `--delete-prefix` edits.
Weakness: CWE-73
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-121748?
How do I fix CVE-2026-121748?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-121748 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2026-121748 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-121748 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-ccgf-7gv4-xg5h.