CVE-2026-50016: pnpm: Transitive dependency alias path traversal allows project path override via symlink replacement

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2026-06-25 · updated 2026-06-29
Weakness: CWE-23

Description

pnpm is a package manager. Prior to 10.34.0 and 11.4.0, pnpm allows a transitive dependency alias from registry package metadata to contain path traversal segments. During install, pnpm later uses that alias as a filesystem path when linking dependency nodes. As a result, a registry package can cause `pnpm install --ignore-scripts` to replace paths in the current project with symlinks to attacker-controlled dependency package directories. This vulnerability is fixed in 10.34.0 and 11.4.0.

Affected products

pnpm: before 10.34.0; from 11.0.0 before 11.4.0 — fixed in 10.34.0, 11.4.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: pnpm 10.34.0, 11.4.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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