$ cve CVE-2021-43616 JSON

CVE-2021-43616

9.0

CRITICAL · CVSS 3.1 · EPSS 2.7% (pctl 86)

In your normal cycle

Critical by CVSS (9), but no sign of active exploitation.

Description

The npm ci command in npm 7.x and 8.x through 8.1.3 proceeds with an installation even if dependency information in package-lock.json differs from package.json. This behavior is inconsistent with the documentation, and makes it easier for attackers to install malware that was supposed to have been blocked by an exact version match requirement in package-lock.json. NOTE: The npm team believes this is not a vulnerability. It would require someone to socially engineer package.json which has different dependencies than package-lock.json. That user would have to have file system or write access to change dependencies. The npm team states preventing malicious actors from socially engineering or gaining file system access is outside the scope of the npm CLI.

Scoring

CVSS	9.0 (CRITICAL, v3.1)
Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS	2.72% — more likely to be exploited than 86% of all CVEs
Weakness	CWE-345
On CISA KEV	no
Public exploit	none known
Published	2021-11-13
Last modified	2026-06-17

Affected (3)

Vendor	Product
fedoraproject	fedora
netapp	next generation application programming interface
npmjs	npm

References

→ the Explorer · watch your stack · NVD