GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF

When Renovate spawns child processes, their access to environment variables is filtered to an allowlist, to prevent unauthorized access to privileged credentials that the Renovate process has access to.

Since 42.68.1 (2025-12-30), this filtering had been inadvertently removed, and so any child processes spawned from these versions will have had access to any environment variables that Renovate has access to.

This could lead to insider attackers and outside attackers being able to exflitrate secrets from the Renovate deployment.

It is recommended to rotate (+ revoke) any credentials that Renovate has access to, in case any spawned child processes have attempted to exfiltrate any secrets.

Workarounds

There are no workarounds, other than upgrading your Renovate version.

Why did this happen?

As part of work towards https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/security/advisories/GHSA-pfq2-hh62-7m96, one of the preparatory changes we made was moving to execa.

One of the default behaviours of execa is to extend the process' environment variables with any new ones, rather than override them.

This was missed in code review, which meant that since this version, the full environment variables have been provided to any child processes spawned with execa by Renovate.

This was discovered as part of an unrelated change.

Child processes spawned by Renovate (i.e. npm install, anything defined in postUpgradeTasks or postUpdateOptions) will have full access to the environment variables that the Renovate process has.

This could lead to insider attackers and outside attackers being able to exflitrate secrets from the Renovate deployment.

The application assigns, modifies, tracks, or checks privileges incorrectly, allowing a user to gain elevated access. Typical impact: privilege escalation beyond the intended level.

GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF has a CVSS score of 5.5 (Medium). The vector is requires local access, low privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (42.96.3, 43.4.4); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

This is patched in 42.96.3 and 43.4.4.

1. What is GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF? GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF is a medium-severity improper privilege management vulnerability in renovate (npm), affecting versions >= 42.68.1, < 42.96.3. It is fixed in 42.96.3, 43.4.4. The application assigns, modifies, tracks, or checks privileges incorrectly, allowing a user to gain elevated access.
2. How severe is GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF? GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF has a CVSS score of 5.5 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which versions of renovate are affected by GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF? renovate (npm) versions >= 42.68.1, < 42.96.3 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF? Yes. GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF is fixed in 42.96.3, 43.4.4. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix GHSA-8WC6-VGRQ-X6CF?
   • Upgrade renovate to 42.96.3 or later
   • Upgrade renovate to 43.4.4 or later