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Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2023-37478

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2023-08-01
  • Fixed in8.6.8 · 7.33.4
  • WeaknessCWE-284

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

pnpm is a package manager. It is possible to construct a tarball that, when installed via npm or parsed by the registry is safe, but when installed via pnpm is malicious, due to how pnpm parses tar archives. This can result in a package that appears safe on the npm registry or when installed via npm being replaced with a compromised or malicious version when installed via pnpm. This issue has been patched in version(s) 7.33.4 and 8.6.8.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2023-08-0112:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2026-10-2319:23First public proof of conceptPoC-in-GitHub

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-37478?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-37478?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD · CISA-ADP · OSV
Pnpm
BranchAffectedFixed in
8.x≥ 8.0.0, < 8.6.88.6.8
7.33< 7.33.47.33.4
@pnpm/cafs
BranchAffectedFixed in
7.0< 7.0.57.0.5

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

  1. Update Pnpm to 8.6.8 · 7.33.4

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-10-23 19:23 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
2 repositories, unverifiedTrevorGKann/CVE-2023-37478_npm_vs_pnpmli-minhao/CVE-2023-37478-Demo
PoC-in-GitHub

Sources

  • CISA-ADPSSVC decisionpoc2024-10-10
  • OpenCVESSVC decisionpoc—
  • CNACVSS 3.17.5read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 3.19.8read 2026-10-23
  • CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-284read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score1.2 %2026-10-22
  • PoC-in-GitHubproof of concept2read 2026-10-23
  • OSVaffected packages—

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2023-08-01
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-37478?

pnpm is a package manager. It is possible to construct a tarball that, when installed via npm or parsed by the registry is safe, but when installed via pnpm is malicious, due to how pnpm parses tar archives. This can result in a package that appears safe on the npm registry or when installed via npm being replaced with a compromised or malicious version when installed via pnpm. This issue has been patched in version(s) 7.33.4 and 8.6.8.

Is CVE-2023-37478 actively exploited?

A proof-of-concept exploit exists for CVE-2023-37478, but active exploitation has not been confirmed at this time.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-37478?

CVE-2023-37478 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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Surveillance reads the versions in your stack — a domain, a lockfile or a list — checks each CVE against the ranges its sources publish, and alerts you when one you run is exploited or enters CISA KEV. A version it cannot read stays « version not verified ».

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